What eBay Should Do With Best Match

Best Match. I hardly know someone who is happy with it, buyer or seller. In that case, something needs to change! Let's start with where it is now.

As of when I'm typing this, Best Match is the secret algorithm that determines what gets high placement in eBay search results. Here is what we do know:

• Seller reputation figures in. DSRs, disputes, and suspensions can raise or lower you.
• Multiple quantity available and "recent sales" now figure in evidently higher than seller reputation. Clients have reported to me that competitors who had worse feedback and DSRs showed up higher than they did in search when the competitor offered more quantity or seemed to have a recent sale.
• Strategy spotlights and "best practices" are self-fulfilling prophecies. eBay says that you should use free shipping because shoppers like that. That's a suggestion! When eBay tells the algorithm that items with free shipping get higher placement, then those are more likely to be bought, and there's your prophecy that these will sell more... fulfilled. So if you don't use the latest strategies, you can expect potentially poor search result placement.
• Paying for something like Featured Plus can raise you to the top of search results if your seller reputation marks don't make eBay want to lower you. We had a client who was "lowered" in search, and paid for Featured Plus, but only showed up at the top of page 8 as Featured. Not helping!
• eBay says that fixed price items have to "earn" their way to the top of search results. Featured Plus and Featured First let you pay to be at the front of the line whether or not Best Match might say you deserve it.

OK, that sounded a bit lumpy! What should eBay do about this? I believe that search results should be tuned to what shoppers really want rather than feeding them what we want them to do.

1. I think that it should be clearer that you can re-sort your search results. I'd like to see what shoppers do if they are fully aware that they don't have to look at "Best Match."
2. I think that if eBay's focus really isn't auctions, or auctions are some sort of format that just gets mixed into this pile, then when a listing ends is mostly not relevant. 
3. I think that if I told an eBay shopper that by default, they are shopping by seller reputation and whether or not the seller is using what eBay says are the best strategies, they'd question that second half.
4. I think that in this economy, people are looking for the best deals. They want a trustworthy seller who has the best price. 
5. Most eBay sellers are great. But I have bought from people who were at the top of Best Match, and turned out to be total jerks. So I wasn't necessarily fed the best people. I still have to do my own checking and reading to determine who I'm going to trust.
6. Recent Sales don't necessarily mean that's the best item from the best seller. I don't believe in the wisdom of crowds. History has shown us some really bad crowds. :) So I think the whole Recent Sales should be gone. If you're going to do the wisdom of crowds, then show me what people who bought this also bought and loved. But let me find the right item first!

I just searched "John Cleese" on Amazon, and I can't tell how items are sorted. We know time ending doesn't matter there, and seller reputation probably doesn't enter into it if I can have all these items shipped from Amazon's warehouses. It wasn't by price since the prices were definitely in no particular order. It wasn't alphabetically. It wasn't by ratings. The first thing I was shown had an average 3-star rating from 2 people. The second thing I was shown had an average 5-star rating by 370 people! It wasn't by type of items since I had DVDs, then a book, then DVDs, then books, etc... It wasn't by how many were available "used and new" from other sellers since those numbers were all over the place. And it wasn't by when the book or DVD were published as those dates were all over the place.

OK I'm stumped! I can't tell how Amazon's search results are sorted. I don't know if they're sorted in the best way for me. Then again, Amazon combines multiple sellers' items into one result and listing page. eBay might have hundreds or thousands of listing pages for one item. So it's going to be different, and that's OK!

How would I do it? I'd make the default search results "price incl shipping - lowest first" or whatever you want to call it. I think most people shop by price. And anybody with all DSRs that are say 4.7 or higher might show up with some sort of logo of a top seller if we want to highlight those people. I'd then give people check boxes to ask if they want things figured into their search results.

I think that all in all, this needs more testing, and I'd like to see testing that's not just one choice. Like I don't want, "Here's our search results, what do you think?" I'd rather see them ask big eBay shoppers to design their own search and how they want search results sorted. I can't imagine that in 2009, eBay shoppers, given the chance to understand what's going on, want things sorted by Recent Sales.

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Where Twitter Is Going

Lots of people are blogging (and tweeting) about where Twitter is going, how will they monetise, etc... I'll throw my hat in the ring, and give you my predictions on Twitter.

1. I predict that Twitter will be like "email." We have lots of apps that handle email, and we can email from various devices in various ways. So in a sense, I think Twitter will sort of become a protocol, sorta. :)
2. Email can be free, but if you have your own domain, it's probably not free. I think Twitter will find ways to get people paying in, but I think they're more likely to come from licensing and API stuff than getting me to pay $5/month. I would pay $5/month, but I wouldn't want to pay Twitter AND pay people making applications. So I think it's more likely that Twitter will charge for API access, and we'll all pay for apps we like.
3. For many years, eBay charged people to use their API. I think Twitter will do that, and I think they might be starting. So that may not be a prediction. :)
4. Because Twitter can go through mobile phones and text messaging systems, I think it will get linked more to eCommerce. I mean buying something more immediately and more easily, possibly even bypassing traditional shopping carts.
5. Applications will have to consolidate or just do more. Right now, I have a mobile Twitter app (PockeTwit), Twirl (desktop client), twitterfeed for sending feeds to my accounts, qwitter if I care who stopped following me, MrTweet to suggest people I should consider following, and there was some other app I was playing with that let you schedule tweets. People use apps like Brightkite and Loopt to map themselves and try to find friends nearby. Plus some people use autogreeters and things like that. We have hashtags, and we have searching tweets for things we're interested in or people we may want to get to know. This is getting cumbersome, so I predict that systems will merge/consolidate, or just do more. And they'll have to do more if we're starting to pay for these apps (because they're being charged for the API).
6. People will find better ways to use Twitter. Right now, I rarely follow people because I want to make sure I can keep up with the updates, interact with people, and have them know I'm reading and paying attention. To me, it doesn't make sense to follow hundreds or thousands of people. It would be like signing up to 100 email mailing lists, and then not being able to make time or headspace to read it all. 
7. Part of using it better might be using multiple accounts based on what you like to write about. I use 4 Twitter accounts. Twirl and PockeTwit help me easily manage them all from one app, which is very helpful. 
8. Organisations will find better ways to use Twitter. At this point, many people no longer take the time to read blog posts, and people will either choose to not read emails, or those emails may get discarded as spam. With email and blogs not reaching people they way they used to, I think Twitter can rise up as a way that towns can tell people there is a snow emergency and not to park on the even side of the street. It's an easy way to quickly tell a large group of people something important.

I believe the Twitter thing is something I think will become more of a major platform rather than "just an app I use." I think it can be monetised, and I think applications will make it even better with more features. Those are my predictions. You may disagree! Where do you think Twitter is going?

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

A Conversation of One

Once upon a time, a guy hung out on a discussion board I run as a hobby. He liked to mess with people, pick fights, and insult people. People didn't like him!

One of his favourite tricks was to sign up for the board under a bunch of names. He would log in as one name, and post something. He'd log out, log in as another name, and respond to his own post as someone else, but often as someone who strongly agreed with the first post. :) As you might imagine, but the time he logged in and out under same names and different names, he had created a whole hot conversation that usually insulted someone or asked someone to prove something... or something you often find unpleasant on discussion boards.

I feel like I'm seeing that all over again. People seem to enjoy posting comments to blogs under fake names, accusing people of things they can't prove, and probably posting a few times as other people who support something they posted earlier under another name.

I think people who run blogs should do more to remove these comments. Most people running blogs get enough info about the people who post comments and their IP numbers to quickly figure out if something like this is going on.

It's not a real discussion while there are 1-person conversations or companies with a stake in the discussion pretending they're regular people who just happen to post in support of the company in question.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Negotiating Prices

Someone asked me why I wouldn't negotiate our prices with him. There are many reasons, and I thought I'd throw these out there. I'm not the only business taking this approach!

1. There is only so much profit in my pricing! Please don't assume that 50% of what I charge you is clear profit... it isn't. That would be great if it were, but this type of business is typically not high profit.
2. Think about the time that goes into custom projects done from scratch. Here is a website designed to help companies quote prices. Look at what sort of time and tasks they are including: http://estimator.astuteo.com/
3. When I used to negotiate pricing in the 1990s, and let people haggle to get a lower price, I found two things happened:
   1. Our pricing was never taken seriously again. If a year later, I quoted $100 to make a change the client wanted, he wanted to give me $50.
   2. These were our highest-maintenance clients. The people who wanted to pay the least were always the guys who wanted lots of phone time, emails, help, support, etc... I like to give those things, but I'm just saying that after nearly 14 years in this business, I've noticed that the people who pay the least want the most service. I think the people who paid regular prices appreciated our time and expertise, and only wanted to take that time when they really needed it.
4. You pay for my time and my company's time. So to spend my time on emails or phone calls trying to get me to charge you for X minutes less... while making me spend Y minutes more to deal with you... hey that math is not going to work! I'm going to want someone to pay for that Y minutes of time you just took!
5. Negotiating is a waste of your time. Your time is more valuable than for it to be spent trying to talk me into doing your project at a financial loss to me! Let's just get on with the project!
6. I probably quoted your price knowing you would need Z minutes of discussion time about the change, project, or whatever it is. 
7. I can't match so-and-so's price because so-and-so has a different business model. My team are Americans in America, who are all experts in what they do. I don't hire kids or junior staffers, and I don't pay people minimum wage or just above it as other companies do. I don't send As Was work to other countries. Your As Was Account Manager is not in India. :) I'm trying to help the American economy, and I'm trying to pay fairly. When you pay As Was, that's where your money goes.
8. I may also not be able to match so-and-so's price because so-and-so doesn't offer the work and relationship that we offer. We are consultants looking at strategy, marketing, branding, design, and more. So-and-so is probably doing a slightly customised version of what he sells to everybody else. If we did that, we could charge much less, but all of our designs are unique, truly custom, and from scratch.
9. People talk! When I recommend businesses to my friends and colleagues, I might mention what I paid. Our prices are on our website. If each person paid different amounts based on how much or hard you pushed me in negotiations, I think that would make people bitter. If everybody gets the same level of service from us, but you paid $2000 and this guy paid $2200 and this guy paid $1750 and this guy paid $1200, then that's going to be a big mess for me. People will talk, people will want refunds, happy customers will immediately feel unhappy and lied to. That's not good!
10. We have heard many times over the last year or so that for the level of design that we do, and for the amount of help and personal attention we give people, we could (and should) be charging much more. I have decided that I will keep our prices as steady as I can to try to make us more affordable to more people. But I do believe that for what we do for our clients, we could be charging a lot more. Plenty of companies charge more and give less. :)

So our pricing is our pricing. No hidden extras. No sneaky charges later. No monthly fees. Everybody pays the same. Everybody gets the best attention and service we have to give. No negotiations. We have promotions now and then, but no haggling. I think that is fair, and I think that is good marketing.

Thanks. :)

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

How To Be Scary

Following from my famous blog series, "How To Be A Blog Shill," and "How To Badmouth A Company," we have today's exciting new instalment called, "How To Be Scary." Anybody looking to instil fear? Listen up because I have some tips for you.

1. Pick your intended business target. Make sure it's some sort of quiet, retreating, passive person who would never THINK of publicly outing what you're doing in any way at all.
2. Decide that the best way to scare, disturb, or distract someone would be prank phone calls.
3. Call her business line to make sure she knows this is a business-related scaring. Make prank phone calls! Leave voice mails with your scary messages!
4. Disregard today's great technologies that can trace phone calls OR any laws there might be against making such calls. Because scary people don't care about laws or being found out!
5. Make some of these calls from your home land line, and leave caller ID showing. You're proud of these calls! You want everybody to know who you are. You're not going to be a coward and hide your caller ID!
6. Say SCARY things on those voice mails like, "You're a fucking shit," and "Nobody likes you." Ooooo these will CERTAIN get your target under your thumb quickly! This is tension reminiscent only of great films like The Bourne Ultimatum!
7. Leave a message telling this person she is trying to scare people. This will confuse her! She will not be able to handle the irony of the scary prank call telling her SHE is scary!
8. Say these terrifying things in a pleasant but real British accent. Note that this WILL make you slightly less scary. You can try and make up for it by doing a sort of raspy whisper, or saying things quite seriously indeed. When you call someone a "fucking shit," you mean business!
9. Include an action item! You are not making these calls for your health! You are making these calls to get somebody to do something, right! Let them know what that is!
10. Make sure your target knows you want her to die. Whatever is going on in this business situation is clearly so dire that you need this other person to cease existing. Let her know on your voice mails.

There you go. You too can learn from the best! You too can be SCARY in business, and do it all behind the scenes so your customers won't know your true colours!

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Always Read Business Contracts

As I speak to more and more people on the phone, I hear things like, "I don't like contracts," or "I don't read them anyway," or "The last guy I worked with didn't even have one." And if they're calling me, they're unhappy with that guy, and may have little they can do since they have no signed agreement. What was promised, what you're paying for, whether you get your money back or not... it's all he said, she said without good, signed documents.

This week, a guy on the phone told me he doesn't bother with contracts because if something goes wrong, he just forgets the money loss and chalks it up to lesson learned. Well, the lesson learned should be HAVE A CONTRACT NEXT TIME! You may have to kiss that money goodbye, but contracts are still very important.

I have seen contracts that say that your vendor owns all the work he does for you... that would stink. I have seen contracts that say that if you have a problem with the vendor, you cannot sue them for more than $1. I knew a lot of people who had a problem with that company last year, and they were all stuck with no resolution they liked because they had agreed to a contract with that clause. Some contracts say you can't sue at all... you have to go for arbitration. That's why having and reading a contract is important!

It's like an insurance policy. You get it and you hope you never need it. Here are the steps for making sure that this is the company you want to work with.

1. Ask for their contract. If they don't have one, or just want to email you some terms, I wouldn't accept it. Any professional company will have a contract.
2. Read the damn thing! Read it, ask questions about it, show it to a lawyer if you need to. But don't just sign it since you have no idea to what you're agreeing. Do not assume that the contract is fine because it looks like a nice legal document. Make sure it protects YOU. You wouldn't buy an insurance policy that didn't have the protection and coverage you needed!
3. If you don't agree to the terms, don't sign it. Don't give the company any money. Don't make any payments. If you don't like how they plan to do business with you, just pay nothing because you may not get it back. Here are two stories illustrating this:
   1.  A friend of mine recently put a security deposit down on an apartment without signing anything about what does that money go to, what happens when she moves in, and what happens if she never moves in. Well, she ended up picking another apartment, and signing their lease. She expected the first landlord to give her her money back, and the woman wouldn't. Many landlords do this... they are out money from taking that apartment off the market to hold it for you, so they keep security deposits, even when you don't move in. And without any signed paperwork saying she gets her money back, she wouldn't have had any legal recourse there.
   2. Similarly, I moved recently. I found an apartment online, but wasn't ready to sign anything since I hadn't seen it. They wouldn't hold it for me unless I gave them $1500 as a security deposit that they would COMPLETELY keep if I ended up not taking the apartment. So I gave them nothing, and I signed nothing. And just as I was counting on this apartment, they called me to say they gave it someone else.They had that right! I later saw the neighbourhood, and am glad I didn't give them the $1500. I would have not taken that place, and I would have forfeited that money.

This is another situation where watching Judge Judy can clear things up. :) Ever see a case where someone lends someone else money that never gets paid back, and the guy who got the money says it was a gift? Well, without paperwork saying it was a loan, it's going to be hard to prove to any court (real or TV) that the intention of that arrangement was for the money to be paid back.

If you have no paperwork saying what this company is doing for how much money, and what happens if things go bad between you, you may not have much to show in court. You may feel wronged, but like the guy I spoke to, you may have to kiss that money goodbye and learn a valuable lesson about signing a contract where you agree to the terms.

These aren't emotional issues. These are business issues, and a court is not going to ask you how you FEEL about this. It's business, and has to stand up in court with no feelings attached. Sometimes, you may feel in the right, but the law may not be on your side. A fair contract that both parties can sign can help the law be on your side when you feel in the right.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Freedom of Speech

With everything that's going on online nowadays, I have been thinking about "Freedom of Speech." People invoke this all the time, especially when they have something negative to say. Well, this thing you keep saying... I don't think it means what you think it means. :)

Freedom of speech and the press is meant to be about the right to say something that could be hot or controversial without fear of being dragged from your bed at night by secret police, and never being seen again. It was the idea of a freedom some countries didn't have. So here in America, you can say you don't like something the President is doing, and you get to continue living. :) In other countries, you may find your home or village burned to the ground.

Freedom of speech and the press stops at another person's right to not be libelled, threatened, or harassed. For example, if I post on the internet that a CEO of a major company is a serial killer, no secret police will steal me from my bed at night and beat me up. Well, probably not. That's the freedom to say what you want!

However, I could hear from that guy's lawyer since I used my speech to accuse him of a crime he hasn't been arrested for or convicted of. I could be ruining this guy's business or life because I wanted to say that about him. That speech is unlikely to be protected by claiming "Freedom of Speech."

Sometimes, I like to compare things to Judge Judy shows. While that may not be the pinnacle of legal interpretations, it usually has some good real-world examples. And one you'll see over and over on that show goes like this. Two women used to be friends until something came between them. She took her man, she lent her money, she let her live there but didn't get rent money, you name it.

The woman who feels wronged will sometimes decide that the best way to deal with this is to call the local government agency, and report the other woman for some sort of child abuse or neglect, even when she knows the other woman is not abusing or neglecting her children. The reported woman then has to deal with all sorts of hell she didn't deserve because the first woman was comfy making that false accusation. That false accusation is probably not going to be protected by Freedom of Speech.

We're lucky to have Freedom of Speech! But it has to be tempered with common sense, good judgment, and truth. Remember that Freedom of Speech is the right to say something without being kidnapped by secret police and held in an unknown prison for 20 years. :) It doesn't mean you can say anything, anywhere on any topic!

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Promising an 80% Sales Increase?

Someone recently showed me how if you put certain words into Google, some paid ads come up that seem to promise some bizarre things.

The first ad that came up for me with these words was an eBay design company saying they will raise your sales 20-40%. I guess that wasn't a good enough promise for the people who were the #3 paid ad:

I have blurred the search words and the URL to protect the bizarre. Well I don't know about you, but I think that's quite a claim! Increasing someone's sales by 80% or more. They are basically saying that the work they can do for you will nearly double your business. That's a tall promise, and my feeling is that any tall promise should be put in writing!

I clicked on this page, and it took me to a form on this company's website that I can fill out to say I'm interested. The page said nothing about sales increases. The page barely had much other than this form.

But I took a look at the terms and conditions of doing business with this company, and not only was there no mention about sales going up any particular amount, and what happens if their work DOESN'T achieve that, but there was this clause:

The Company cannot be held responsible for anything adversely affecting the Client's business operation, sales, or profitability that might be claimed is a result of the Service offered by The Company.

So not only will they NOT stand behind the sales increase claim, but if your sales go down, AND you believe it was because of something this company did, you agree to not hold them responsible. I wonder what has happened in the past that made them have to put that in their contract.

I wouldn't want this company to get away with drawing me in with false promises. If this is what they are saying they can do for sure, it should be in their contract. Otherwise, I might as well run Google Ads saying we will increase your sales 200% just to get you to contact me.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Wrong Number Phone Calls

I have a new phone number, and so far, many of the phone calls coming to it are not for me. I seem to be getting messages for Kimberly, or something that sounds like that, and more recently "Frankie."

The amazing thing is that before these messages are left, these people have to sit through an outgoing voice mail announcement telling them they've reached [my company name], check us out on the web at [web address], and this is what this business does. They listen to all of that, and don't seem to notice that's NOT Kim's or Frankie's typical outgoing voice mail message... or voice.

Someone I know had a business phone number that had formerly been a toll free number for a major insurance company. So people would call up, and right off the bat start talking about their illnesses or personal issues. Someone else I know ended up with a local ambulance company's non-emergency number. Still people would call needing an ambulance, and it was very nerve wracking. I think he had to change his number.

I think the best example of this is something I found so funny that it still cracks me up to this day. But the message that was left for me contains words not everybody may want to hear. So if you are sensitive to correct words for body parts, please don't read on. If you are reading on, please put down your beverages. :)

In college, I had an answering machine that recorded to cassettes. Which means I still have this message somewhere in my cassette tape collection. :) I lived in a single dorm room, but my boyfriend was there so often that I put his name on the outgoing message. And my nickname back then (early 1990s) was Midge because I was quite the fan of Midge Ure and Ultravox. Go ahead and laugh.

So the outgoing message was like 20-30 seconds of, "Midge and Dave aren't here. Midge is probably out singing. Dave is out, and nobody knows where he is. Leave your message, and Midge or Dave will get back to you." Something like that with our names over and over.

One day, I came home to a message I just couldn't believe. I will never forget this message, word for word. A woman with a New York accent had left a message. Imagine someone sounding ALMOST like The Nanny saying this:

"Alison, it's your mother. I think you need to have a vaginal culture done. Mervyn won't prescribe anything for you until he knows what that is. You can have the infirmary there do it, or you could just come home." The come home bit was FULL of guilt and "yes, this is the right choice... come home!" by sounding immensely sad and needy.

Ya know, I sometimes think that's something mostly a NY Mom would do. Have NO freaking clue, be not listening AT ALL to the outgoing message, and leave something THAT personal and invasive. I mean, imagine her leaving that message at the RIGHT number! Alison comes back to her room with friends. Oh there is a message. Hits the play button, and that gets broadcasted to the room of friends.

People, please listen to voice mail outgoing messages. They are there for YOU. I think many systems will bypass them by pressing #. But at least listen long enough to know that have the right number.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Damned If You Do & Closet Skeletons

This week is one of those times where I look around and wonder who the winners are. In this economy, everybody's struggling and on edge anyway. An eBay announcement comes out. Companies look good, companies look bad. Sellers are happy with the announcement, sellers are unhappy with the announcement.

Some people have strong reactions. We might both have strong reactions but be on opposite sides. We certainly saw that this week. And there may be no right answer or wrong answer. Everybody who posted passionately or angrily or confused could be right. I could be right and someone who feels the opposite way could also be right because we're looking at different things. I can dislike a company because I don't think they were as honest as they could be with their customers. You could love that company because they gave you great work and great service. Both can be true and right at the same time.

It's an interesting situation. Something I do that you thoroughly hated, someone else loved. Something I said for which you demonised me, someone else thanked me for. Someone called me a liar at the same time someone thanked me for the truth. People who told me on Wednesday that I was a liar and scare mongerer apologised to me on Thursday. Information had come out that made some people realise that I wasn't lying and I wasn't trying to scare them, though some people are still riding the "scare mongerer" bandwagon.

People were telling me to never name other companies by name (even if they're doing something wrong or lacking truth) at the same time people were telling me to not hide company names when I have something to "expose" because people don't feel fully-informed when they don't know who I'm talking about. People told me I should publicly disclose every negative run-in I've had with another company while people were telling me that it's a horrible business practice to say anything about having a problem with another company in your industry. If I don't disclose everything, I must be lying... and if I disclose things, I am unprofessional because no company with any dignity would ever disclose how another company carries out business practices most people would find unpleasant, unfair, or inappropriate.

Some people said, "How dare you talk about a competitor." Well, I have been saying for years that we don't compete with these people. While we both do design for eBay, that's where the similarity ends. We don't offer the style of design they specialise in. They don't offer the style of design we specialise in, nor do they offer any of the other services we have been offering for years, ie: eBay listing strategy consultations. I joke it's like apples and BMWs. :) Companies who like what we do are unlikely to want them. Companies who like what they do are unlikely to want us. So there's enough pie for both companies, and I don't see them as a competitor.

For 1.5 yrs, I hadn't been disclosing these things that were going on. I had been hoping that if I didn't kick back when I was getting kicked, another company would decide to stop kicking me. But some people are that special type of bully who keep kicking even when you're not kicking back. This week I kicked, and people threw a fit. So I've learned that the best way to kick back is to hire professional bloggers and have people posting in forums under real and fake names, and put people on the payroll to tell my story, but not to put myself out there as the source of this info. It looks like that's all you have to do to get your info and spin out there without looking like you're doing it. I applaud the smoothness of that.

If you're breathing and reading this, you probably have a competitor somewhere, and maybe you've seen that competitor do some dirty things. I've seen some truly dirty things flung my way and flung between companies in my industry. Like what? Well...

• Did you know that some companies will "trade" leads they get at shows? You give me all of your leads, I give you mine, you get contacted by a company who never scanned your badge. Maybe you end up on mailing lists for companies you never met.
• People emailing and calling each other's clients. My clients get emails all the time from designers trying to win them over. My clients get calls from competitors of the software they're using now. One of my clients was getting so many calls from "the other guy" that they finally told him they were "going out of business" just to get him off their back. They didn't go out of business.
• People who have "professional bloggers" and other hired guns are out in blogs, message boards, and other spots writing anti-competitor stuff while trying to look like some regular guy who has this opinion. That means that if you see a message board post that says that Software X sucks, you don't actually know if that's a regular guy with that real opinion, or someone who got paid to say that.
• Comparisons may not be honest. I've seen websites and brochures comparing Company A to Company B. The company who didn't write that showed the other company to be awful in every area, even if those things weren't true.
• Similarly, I've heard people try to compete with us by telling people completely untrue things about my company... like we only started working with eBay sellers like a year ago, so we have no idea what we're doing. We started working with eBay sellers in early 2001.
• Cold calling. Did a company you weren't looking to hear from just find you and call you?
• Companies call each other pretending to be potential clients. Not only does this waste time, but it's designed for the competitor to learn how the other guy sells, what he might be saying about this competitor, and pick their brain for ideas.
• At an event last year, we had the bizarre experience of having a company who's not top on our list spend a good amount of time standing at our vendor table, listening to what we said to people, and when we took a breath, they took that potential client by the arm and brought them to their table.
• Last year, a guy who heard me give a speech at an event about what my company does told me that he heard Competitor X give nearly the exact same speech about what they do at an event I wasn't at weeks after the event I spoke at. I wasn't there, but that's how he described it.
• Companies are using your eBay listings to advertise themselves more than eBay allows. eBay's rule about crediting an outside company is very well-defined. You get one image of a certain size, you get no more than 10 words of a certain size written in HTML, you get one link, and you can only mention services you provided for that seller. One software company advertises their templates under templates we designed for people who use their software. So this is non-compliant with eBay's rule, and has always seemed dirty to me.
• I have heard about companies who try to mess with competitors by adding the competitors' staff to known spam mailing lists.
• People embellish their eBay expertise. I've had plenty of people come to me after working with someone claiming to be an eBay expert or consultant of some sort but the advice they got actually drove their business down. 
• I remember being in a weird spot in early 2008 when subscribers to one of the software companies were told by their Account Managers that eBay was going to change the Item page, and that As Was eBay templates would stop working. This wasn't true. eBay announced possible changes to the Item page in June 2008, but our templates work quite well in the proposed new Item page AND those changes aren't even implemented yet, a year after my clients got this scare.
• I remember seeing a panel of software people at an event. No matter who the audience asked a question to, one person up there kept answering the questions about how great his system was, and oh, he just wasn't so sure if anybody else's system did that. It was very awkward to watch.
• A software company some of my clients use had a shaky 2008. Many of our clients wanted to leave them, and move to other software. This company decided that the best way to avoid that was NOT to fix the bugs or deal with the support requests, but to deny people the data exports they were requesting.
• I remember sending one of our happy clients to one of the software companies because I thought the software was a good fit for him, and we don't offer software. The software sales guy was saying things that were so bizarre to my client that my client got me on his cell phone, called the guy back, and put him on speaker. Rather than sell my client on his software, the sales guy spent all his time badmouthing my company with things that weren't true. My client was saying, "I'm happy with them. I want to know about your software," and the guy kept going on about us. He lost the sale, which was a shame since I handed him someone ready to sign with him.
• When I first started out in 1995, I remember local hosting companies hacking into each other.
• For the last week (as I write this), I've been getting prank phone calls. British voices swearing on my voice mail. By the way, the British accents make these sound much less threatening than they may have been intended. :) But the question is: who would do this? I can't imagine any of my loyal clients taking the time to prank call another design company. I think my clients are really busy selling and running businesses. So I would narrow this down to say that the calls most likely come from another company in my industry, or the minions on their payroll.

I am not saying that any particular company was part of some or all of the above points. I'm saying this is what goes on out there. Some I've experienced, some I only heard about. Some you may think these are just fine and not dirty. You're welcome to your opinion. My point? There is probably NO company out there that hasn't done at least one thing that you'd find dirty. Maybe they regret it, and maybe they were proud of it, and plan to keep doing that. If you're going to hang me for doing something you don't like, just know there are dozens of things that go on behind the scenes that would probably make you think poorly of most companies you know!

I've done one thing on this list. I'm sorry, and I'm not going to do it again. Any other companies out there want to admit to any of these, apologise, and promise to not do it again (and then really not do it again)?

Back to this week...

This week, I am FAR from the only person posting things publicly about what's been going on this week. Many people are hurt and upset and angry. I've seen plenty of posts from people I don't know, and they are saying the same things I am. Some are saying more scathing and accusatory things than I am. Many drew those conclusions without knowing me or reading anything I was saying about the situation. But nobody's talking about those people because many are posting anonymously. I still have to master that. :)

Many people are taking out their negativity on me even though I didn't hurt them. You may not like something I've done or said, but I didn't hurt you. I didn't break your Store, and I didn't make you spend more money on your Store. If something this company did messed with your eBay sales or Store or caused you to spend extra money, they did that. I had no control over that or their decisions. If I did something to hurt you, I want to know more about it, and apologise. I want to apologise to people who felt bothered by things I said.

I'm sorry for the people who didn't like hearing the truth or how I chose to share it. I wonder if the company who hasn't been as truthful as they could have been is sorry for what they have caused people. I don't remember seeing an apology from them. Well, here's mine. I would like to keep standing up for the truth, but I'm sorry if my style rubs people the super wrong way. I'm sorry that I still make mistakes. :) Someday, I'll get it right and be able to balance telling the truth and not standing in front of a target. :)

Posted at 04:55 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Dan, The Guy Who Comments in My Blog

Dan. Dan likes to comment in my blog. Dan says things that really lean toward him being a major Frooition fan. And that's OK! You're allowed to like companies even if I don't like them. I allow that here. :)

Dan pushes me, and picks, and asks questions. I answer them all seriously. People like to be taken seriously, and I prefer to give people the benefit of the doubt.

My last reply to Dan asked him to give me his real email address because he challenged me to prove where in the past Frooition had planted blog posts to make my company look bad (since I said they had). Haven't heard back yet. Maybe because the work day is ending in the UK... it's past 5pm there now!

I decided to take a look at Dan's comments in my blog. Typepad shows you the name they give, and links their name to what they put in as a web address. Dan keeps linking his name to a website about anger management. I guess he's having issues with anger. :)

I decided to take a moment and look at the other information Typepad collects when someone posts a comment. Typepad tells me the email address he put in was noreply@test.com. Well, that's not really helping now is it. But the IP number tells me something.

Dan's identity revealed

You guessed it, Dan works for Frooition. Or he's Michael or someone else there who's out there commenting in message boards and blogs today. Is that you, Michael? I know you're just doing what someone asked you to do. And hey, nothing I'm out there saying should reflect personally on you. I don't think you make policy there.

That means when Dan referred to Frooition as "these guys" in his blog comments, I think he meant these guys, just like him, sitting right there with him. :)

So Dan, you wanted to see an example of Frooition posting anti-As Was crap in my blog, I think your comments might qualify. :) And since you work there, you'll know about the stuff you guys were pulling in late 2007 that I sleuthed.

Case closed, Dan! See you around. :)

Update:

Posted at 11:42 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (6) | TrackBack (0)

Frooition Truth Comes Out: "Upgrade" Or Uninstall

I just found this page. It FINALLY tells the truth, so I am VERY excited to share this with everybody. Let's look at some highlights.

FACT: The Frooition Store could be considered an upgrade to their current Store. However, it is a solution to a problem. Notice this upgrade didn't come out until eBay announced new Stores including their initiative to crack down more strongly on eBay Stores that break the Site Interference rule. So I don't think it's true to say that new Frooition Stores are just an optional upgrade.

FACT: This is absolutely true, and the one thing I want all Frooition Store customers to see and completely understand. You have two options: pay Frooition to get their "new" Store OR remove your Frooition Store from your eBay account, and completely stop using it.

Note that there is no option to continue using the Frooition Store you have now. This is because these Stores continue to be non-compliant, and naturally break in the new eBay Stores environment.

FACT:  The question here is actually not answered in their answer. Smooth! The Store is "distorted" because eBay's new Stores are stripping out most of the coding that would make an eBay Store non-compliant. The "distorted" Store you see is what's left after that's removed, and even then, there are still non-compliant elements in what's left.

FACT: Frooition's new Stores will be compliant. They will have to take out the coding and design formatting that was breaking eBay's rules. Frooition's old/current Stores (as of when I'm writing this) were not compliant, which was why they are breaking and would be unusable.

So, to sum up in a spin-free zone...

• These Store designs break an eBay rule that's been around since 2004.
• There is no good excuse they could use that would explain why they sold you a Store they would have known was non-compliant.
• If your Store looks distorted in the new Stores preview, it's because eBay is stripping out the code they want to make sure is NOT in Store designs anymore. That rule-breaking code was the centre of what you were sold, and now it's gone.
• Frooition will charge you to fix it. Our contract says that we don't charge for fixes you need because of something we do that breaks an eBay rule at the time we do it. That's our fault, and we should fix that for free, don't you think?
• Your other choice is to remove the Store you bought from Frooition. Have no Store design or hire someone else to do your Store design. I'd recommend my company of course, but you have plenty of choices.
• Your Frooition Store is toast, and it's only a matter of time before it breaks, and you will have to uninstall it or replace it.

Someone asked me why I'm so angry or what is my vendetta. I'm angry because I think this is unjust. I don't have a vendetta. I see myself as a "consumer advocate" and finally I get to expose what's going on. It's no longer, "Deb says these Stores are non-compliant and will someday break." Now it's, "These Stores are non-compliant, and you can count the days until they break."

I guess this would be like hiring an accountant to do your taxes. He's an expert, and he's going to get everything right. And then you find out he used tax laws from 2003, so some things got messed up for you. Now, he thinks you should pay for him to redo your taxes.

A friend and colleague said it would be like having a season ticket to a football stadium, but they go and hang a giant placard that blocks your view... and then they expect you to keep that seat (and see nothing) or pay again for a season ticket in another seat. I think he has the better analogy than my accountant one, so he wins!

OK my husband wins. He heard about the previous analogy, and went for, "It's like buying a season ticket in a crumbling, old stadium with safety issues, and your team moves to a new stadium, but you're still sitting in the old seat in the crumbling stadium." My husband is really funny, or so I think. Put your analogy in the comments below! :)

If Frooition would just be honest with people, I'd have nothing to say. Today's blog post might be about coffee creamer or something. :) If Frooition didn't keep doing things I felt were disadvantageous, deceptive, or harmful to sellers (my opinion), I wouldn't be doing a consumer advocate exposé about them doing these things.

Posted at 08:10 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (32) | TrackBack (0)

2-6 Weeks for Delivery??

You see them all day or evening... short-format TV commercials trying to get you to call and order an item. Amazing hangers! Amazing food bags! Amazing everything.

Call now to get TWO sets! It all reminds me of the Bloom County cartoon when Opus loses his mind while watching these commercials, and calls to order the "Ronco Pocket Nose Picker and Yogurt Scrambler."

I was looking at the last screen of these commercials, where usually in tiny print, you can learn the shipping and "processing" charge (it's not handling anymore) as well as when it'll get to you. You know the shipping and processing probably pays for the item.

But most interesting is the fine print about delivery time. Most of these commercials say something like "please allow 2-6 weeks for delivery." Which makes me say...

• I can't imagine an eBay, Amazon, or other online seller getting away with that! In 2009, who wants to buy something today, especially an impulse item, and get it in nearly 2 months?!
• In 2009, they can't find a way to fulfill orders faster? They don't have any ready to go? Multiple warehouses?
• Are they using that time frame to actually first PRODUCE the product? Like hey, it's NOT in our warehouses, but when we get enough orders, we'll make some!

This just seemed like one thing that hasn't caught up with the times. We all have cell phones, credit cards, email, and other things helping our lives be faster and more immediate... yet buying from TV looks like it still comes to you via Turtle Express.

Posted at 03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Dissecting a Press Release about eBay Stores

Oh man, this Stores thing is just getting more and more bizarre! One of the other design companies put out a press release, and there are so many not-true things in there, some people suggested that I write about it. I guess this week, I am official Debunker and Whistle Blower. :)

Firstly, what's missing from this press release?

• This company admitting that they build and sold people non-compliant designs and Stores that they KNEW were not compliant. This is true.
• This company admitting that their Stores WILL break.
• What they're going to charge people to fix the Stores that never should have been broken.
• That before this press release came out, they were telling current and potential clients that eBay is wrong and this change is only for US sellers.

So here are some quotes from this press release.

QUOTE: "The easiest way to describe the changes is to say that eBay is rolling out a new version of its store software. Just like any piece of software goes from V1 to V2 as it develops. In turn Frooition.com have adapted their own software so that customers have the choice of upgrading to eBay's new store or staying as they are." Says Phillip Molloy, President, Frooition inc."

QUOTE: "Much of our time here at Frooition.com is spent keeping on top of the many changes and modifications which eBay make to their software. Frootion.com has a long history of keeping customers stores looking amazing as well as running smoothly. This keeps Frooition.com customers focused on selling and shields them from software issue which they don't need to know about!" said Adrian Bausor, Head of Development, Frooition inc.

My point since the announcement came out is to make sure people have the truth. Hire whoever you want. Give Frooition the chance to fix stuff, or don't. Hate me for saying their name, or thank me for saying their name. But you need to know these things. You need to have all the info to make the best decisions for you, and you shouldn't fall for the spin.

Some people said I'm badmouthing a competitor. Firstly, we don't compete with them and never have. You can't get what they do from us, and you can't get what we do from them. That's not my competition. Second, I have tried to get this info out in subtle ways without saying their name. I tried for years. Nobody would listen. Now, sellers have another stressful thing to deal with when they really don't need it. It may cost them more money when it should never have had to. I thought maybe it was time to just put it out there totally honestly.

Say what you want about me. Say it's bad manners to point at someone doing the wrong thing. But so far, nobody has said that I'm wrong. What I'm saying is true. You may not like my delivery style, but you're getting the truth. Forget about my delivery style, and work with the truth. :) Maybe one day you will thank me for telling you the truth and the whole story.

Posted at 12:33 PM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

I Never Expected This To Be The Lie

When eBay announced their changes to Stores, I assumed that some design companies would feel like they had to lie to people so that their companies didn't look so bad for selling them something that wasn't compliant.

But I didn't expect these companies to tell people that eBay is wrong. Their Store won't break (when it will). Or that this is only happening for eBay US customers.

So people may not like my out-there style, but I need people to know the truth.

This will affect UK Stores, soon. eBay is right. Heavily customised Stores will break, and they will.

Posted at 04:54 AM | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

New eBay Seller Compliance Workshops

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/aswas

We have scheduled a live internet radio show every Wednesday at noon Eastern time. It's all about helping eBay sellers be more compliant with rules, both the new rules that eBay announces as well as old rules. Just because you flew under the radar in the past doesn't mean you'll be able to keep flying under the radar! Really? Yes! Read on!

Yesterday, eBay's Stores announcement included more formally outlawing non-compliant eBay Store designs. This means thousands of eBay Stores will break, including Stores that people paid "professional" companies to design. This is bad!

The 15 Jan 09 deadline on getting references to paper payments out of your eBay templates and listings also shines a light on eBay rules and compliance issues.

So it's time to look compliance. Most eBay sellers don't know all of eBay's rules, especially as they have been evolving. This means that many sellers are breaking rules by mistake, and certainly some are breaking rules on purpose.

Non-compliance is bad for two reasons.

• Firstly, the obvious... if you break rules and eBay cracks down on you, that's on your record. You could get suspended, and that can affect how you show up in search since compliance is part of the Best Match algorithm along with seller performance.
• Second, the art of the scramble. When eBay cracks down on new or old rules, you probably need to change. This means time and money. For some people, the change feels impossible. We have a client who has over 6,000 items on eBay at any given moment. Any change that requires him to change something in all of his listings will be costly at the very least, certainly time-consuming, and nearly impossible at the worst!

So join us for our weekly talk radio show. Call in or get into the live chat. We'll take a look at what you're doing, and let you know what changes you should make. No, talking about non-compliant things won't make you a target for eBay. They will be glad you care and are cleaning things up.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

eBay Stores: Who Ya Gonna Call?

Right now, there are some sellers who are worried about their eBay Store design and it compliance after today's announcement by eBay.

We're here to say DON'T WORRY. Contact us. Even if we didn't do your Store, we can quote you a price on doing whatever work it needs. Many will need to be rebuilt, some will need small fixes.

You might even decide that since you have time before you HAVE to use the new Stores layout, you can hire us for the template as well.

A designed, compliant Store is nice. But a designed, compliant, effective eBay listing template is even better. People might search, find, buy from you, or choose to not buy from you without ever seeing your Store. Therefore, we think you should be thinking about your listings, and what we can do for you.

Posted at 06:28 PM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

eBay Announces Changes to eBay Stores

eBay just made an announcement about eBay Stores. We support it! We think it's great that some changes to how an eBay Store looks will help the site be more consistent. That can only help shopping and buying. But the announcement raises some issues. Here is our press release:

As Was Assures The Compliance Of Their eBay Store Designs

 eBay’s announcement on January 13, 2009 means that so-called “Advanced” eBay Stores that use certain design and coding will no longer display correctly, and must be phased out immediately. Are you one of thousands of eBay sellers who paid an “eBay Store design specialist” for an eBay Store that now has to be replaced?

For the last few years, eBay sellers who called As Was looking for an “advanced” eBay Store design were talked out of it. As Was told sellers individually and in classes at eBay Live, RocketPlace, and other conferences that these designs break an eBay rule called Site Interference. The staff at As Was were made aware of the Site Interference rule in November 2004. Having seen eBay crack down on Site Interference, As Was didn’t want to risk it for sellers, and has since chosen to stay away from “Advanced” eBay Stores that break this rule.

Sellers will no longer have the option to try to fly under the rules radar. eBay’s announcement about the exciting new version of eBay Stores includes a more stringent crack-down on the Site Interference rule. For example, under the new Stores upgrade, http://www.aswas.com/img/bambinibarucci-old.jpg (not designed by As Was) will look like http://www.aswas.com/img/bambinibarucci.jpg. The repeating background and changed link colors mean that even in this broken state, this Store is still not compliant with Site Interference. Watch our video explaining the Site Interference rule, and how currently-infringing Stores will break.

Thousands of eBay Stores that were never compliant will now completely break under the new Store layout that eBay is phasing in throughout Q1 2009. This includes Stores built by “eBay Store design specialists” who have “extensive experience” with eBay selling, and are claiming to provide you with the “most advanced high impact eBay design”. These “professional eBay design” companies who took money to build and install non-compliant Stores either didn’t know their designs broke eBay rules, or they knew but chose to break the rules anyway.

“Years ago, we made the decision to choose honesty, compliance, and future-mindedness for our clients,” said Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was. “Not only did we know these Stores broke eBay rules, but they’re also often overdesigned for what the eBay shopper expects to experience around eBay. We knew this, we heard it from sellers who bought these overdesigns and saw disappointing results, and we feel like this eBay announcement echoes our theory about the eBay Stores experience.”

Levitt continued, “eBay disallowing this style of Store design seems to support my conclusion that overdesigned Stores didn’t work very well. No Stores that have ever won eBay’s Best In Stores Award had these “Advanced” (non-compliant) designs. If these types of designs worked well towards converting shoppers into buyers, I’d imagine that eBay’s announcement this month would be in greater support of this type of design rather than to more formally outlaw it.”

It’s not just the companies claiming to be eBay experts that worry Debbie Levitt. “There are a lot of eBay sellers using freelance, outsourcing, and job-bidding websites to try and find people who will cheaply build so-called advanced eBay Stores,” Levitt explained. “I want to help get the message out about the new eBay Stores so that sellers can spend their money more wisely. Anything spent on a non-compliant eBay Store is wasted money, especially if the designer is not going to fix the broken Store for free.”

As Was designs like Msss Kel’s Place, winner of the 2008 eBay Best In Stores award, will continue looking fabulous without any changes or alterations needed. http://www.aswas.com/img/mssskel-old.jpg is the old version of the Store, which will transition seamlessly to the new version of Stores, http://www.aswas.com/img/mssskel.jpg.

As Was is happy to continue offering eBay sellers the best in service and attention. As consultants and eBay experts, we are always advising clients on what is allowed, as well as how to respond to all of the changes eBay has been making. Best known for eBay listing template design and eBay Store design, the one-on-one relationship As Was enjoys with each seller also extends to strategy advice as well as off-eBay services such as website design, print design, and marketing consulting.

As Was will continue offering innovative and creative designs as well as tools to help eBay and online sellers. Developed throughout 2008 in total compliance with eBay’s current and upcoming initiatives, As Was will soon be launching a new tool to help eBay sellers cross-promote items within their eBay listings, eBay Store, and even outside of eBay.

Sellers looking to upgrade from their current paid Frooition design to the custom, unique, and compliant work done by As Was can enjoy our competitive upgrade pricing offer. Learn more about As Was at http://www.aswas.com.

Posted at 04:14 PM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

How To Find A Designer Who Knows eBay Rules

I did ColderICE's radio show yesterday, and one of the points I was making was about only hiring design companies or people who really know eBay rules. That way, they won't design something that is non-compliant, and either gets you in trouble with eBay, or costs you more down the road to fix.

A good question came into the chat room, which was, "How can sellers know which designer really knows the rules?"

That IS a hard one! Anybody can say they know the rules, but you really won't know until eBay cracks down on something that was against the rules.

My answer was to talk about something that's in our contract. We have a clause that says that if we design you something for eBay that is NOT compliant with eBay rules at the time that we made it, and eBay cracks down on you, we'll fix it ASAP for free. If we design something, and you specifically request that we do something against the rules, and we tell you it's against the rules, and eBay cracks down on you, we'll fix it, but not for free. When would that happen? Sometimes, clients ask for lots of company logos in their listings. This is technically against the rules, but is often not cracked down on. We advise people this is against the rules, but sometimes they see their competition doing it, and they insist on doing it. If they get caught, we'll fix it, but not for free since that wasn't our fault.

So there are a few things to make sure your contract says when you plan to work with a design company making something for eBay:

• Who owns the work? Do you own what they make for you, or do they reserve the right to use it for other people? If the contract doesn't specify, just know that US law says that artwork is the property of the artist unless and until the rights are signed away in writing to someone else. So saying NOTHING about who owns the work is the same as saying the design company owns the work. It may be important to you that you own it AND that they don't use the same look for someone else!

•  What happens if something they design breaks eBay rules that are in effect at the time it was created? Will they fix it for free, or will they want you to pay to fix it? You may want the contract to detail that so that you're not stuck paying to fix something that never should have been broken.

Posted at 10:26 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Designers' Hidden Fees and Terms

I was just reading the terms of business on the website of a company that does some design for eBay sellers. You have to agree to these terms when you order their services from their site. I am wondering if anybody read any of these...

"If you are not recontacted by [company] within eight weeks after our first acknowledgement, please contact us."

You might wait 8 weeks to hear from them? And after waiting two months, it's your job to contact them?!? This doesn't sound like great attention.

"Orders not exceeding $300 will be charged in full before the start."

So you'll pay in full up front, and not get your money back. There was another term that said it was non-refundable. This means you have NO choice but to pay in full up front, and no chance of getting it back if things don't work out!

"Browsing image databases for the Client is subject to a extra charge ($100/hour)."

I guess this means that if you don't tell them what images to use in your design, and they have to look for images for your design, you can pay for their time?!?!? Well, if you knew what images you wanted, you might as well hire a college kid for $10/hr.

"We reserve the right to use at our discretion all pictures provided or created by us in future projects."

Ah this is the big one. This means that anything they design for you, they can use for somebody else, and you can't say anything since you've agreed to that!!!

So look out for hidden charges, and remember that what they do for you, they can use for somebody else.

These are some of the reasons I don't see companies like this as competition. We don't have to hide stinky terms in some tiny iframe that you agree to when you fill out a form on our website. We email a real contract that you can read, and we can go over if you have questions about what the terms are.

Nothing hidden. No surprises later. And we don't re-use what you paid us to do and sell it to someone else.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Those TV Promises

Being snowed in lately, I've seen more TV than I care to admit. I was amazed at how many commercials and infomercial-style ads there are for two main things: making heaps of money by doing nothing, and losing weight while doing nothing.

I'd like to pretend these both work. I'd like to imagine that in a time where the world-wide economy is a huge mess, and obesity in this country is at an all-time high, people are making money easily and losing weight easily. I'd love to think that. I'd love to think that I could have piles of money and lose this damn 20 lbs already!

But they can't possibly work. If they worked, where are all my skinny and rich friends? Why don't my clients abandon eBay and online selling for these "internet shortcuts" and other schemes? The commercials tell you that's where the money is.

Really? I think I can just leave this at asking where all of my skinny and wildly rich friends are. I know zero people who have lost weight from a drug on TV. I know zero people who have made heaps of money from a selling system they found on TV or in a seminar.

Aren't these supposed to be regulated?

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Deadline for Paper Payments on eBay

The deadline for removing references to paper payments from your eBay listings is in around a week. 15 Jan 09 is that deadline. For a calendar of other deadlines and events, visit the events page on RocketPlace Community.

What do you need to do to be compliant?

1. Remove anything in templates or listings that says you take checks, money orders, or cash. This includes cashier's checks and international money orders. You can't take them, and you can't say you take them.
2. I am under the impression that eBay is going to be watching the content of listings (which includes templates) as you or your software tries to list your items to eBay. They may be looking for words like "check" and possibly even "cheque." If eBay sees a listing it thinks is still offering checks, that listing could FAIL, as in not be allowed to even go up on eBay.
3. The example eBay gave me was that even if you have a sentence like, "We don't take personal checks," the listing might fail because they are not parsing the context of the mention of checks. So rather than being a dolphin caught in tuna nets, I'm just suggesting that any use of "check" be removed. And I'm suggesting that you NOT write negative sentences like, "We don't take money orders."

If you have a template that needs changing, we can change it for you, even if we didn't do your template.

Just fill out our contact form to let us know what changes your template needs and what software you're using. We'll get to you as soon as we can!

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Did Your Template Company Remove Your Email?

Did you hire a professional template design company? Check your listings right now to see if your email address is still in your listings.

Most eBay sellers DO want their email address in listings, especially while eBay is still allowing that. Removing that can sometimes confuse shoppers, who may not (yet) know how to find the Ask Seller A Question button.

I am under the impression that one template design company has gone and taken email addresses out of the listings for all of their clients. And I'm wondering if they asked their clients if they wanted that since we don't have a SINGLE client who would want their email address removed from their listings while eBay's not forcing them to do that.

I'm seeing weird eBay listings that say "email us" and don't give the email RIGHT THERE, which I think we all agree is a SMART marketing move. Don't tell people to email you, and then expect them to fish for where or how to do that! Just give them the email address!

Is your email address gone? Did you want it in there? Get your template company to put it back. And while you're at it, ask them why they took it out without your permission.

Posted at 08:47 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

The Design Paradigm Is Changing

We've been telling people for years that web design (and eBay design) has no reached its peak. We kept hearing disagreement... that you have to put everything in columns, you have to shove everything you can in front of someone's face.

We just don't think that's what works in a low attention span, text messages are too much to read, society. We think things have to be more visual and easier to use. Less to read. Forget columns since one column always loses while one gets attention.

People still push against us. OK, we'll do our thing, and you do yours, and see how it comes out. :)

We even had one guy choose someone who thinks he competes with us... I know the other guy designs things that all look the same. I asked the client why he chose the other guy, especially after telling us how much he loved our work. His answer? He thought it would be better for his site to look like everybody's else's in his industry rather than standing out like we wanted it to.

?!?!?!?!

I saw this the other day, and felt like it was standing behind what I've been saying for years:

http://www.webdesignerdepot.com/2008/12/100-websites-with-outstanding-artistic-design/

Now, I might not suggest this for everybody on the planet, but I think what this site picked as outstanding really says something. Backs me up! :) Backs up what I've been saying about standing out, being more visual, and going against "what everybody else is doing" so that you can do what your target audience needs. It's about mood and personality. It's about making your reader/shopper feel a part of something. It's about keeping the page interesting so it's stickier.

We've been trying to tell you this for years, and you weren't listening. It's 2009. Time to stop designing like it's 2003. Listen to us. Having done websites since 1995, we know what we're talking about!

Everybody, prepare for design to be something other than what you're used to. The endless columns and lists and words are going to have to go away because they don't work. It's a 140-character Twitter world. You have half a second to make an impression on someone. What do you want your website or eBay listings to look like?

Our answer is "us." :)

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack (0)

Games Landlords Play, Part 3

Ya know, thinking about my posts last week about landlords, I was thinking back to the place I rented in 2004, and I wanted to mention something else.

I don't think it's fair for a landlord to expect a tenant to take care of or be responsible for anything that the tenant can't take with them. For example, landscaping. I don't think a landlord should expect me to mow the lawn or cut back trees and shrubs when I don't get to take the fruits of that labour with me. That makes your house look nicer and/or keeps you in line with the Homeowner's Association.

If the landlord wouldn't ask you to make un-reimbursed improvements to the house, like hey, refinish the cabinets, then I don't see why I should be on the hook for things that make the home better.

I think the landlord that year actually handed me a lease that said that if the roof needed any work, I was responsible to get that done and pay for it.

Please read leases. Every word. Good ones are very long, but remember who's showing it to you. :) The landlord drew up the lease, and he may not have any reason to make any of the language in there favour you. And remember that vague language can be used against you later. Something vague like "care for the property" could be defined as ANYTHING that landlord may decide, and who knows, a judge may stand behind him if you fought it.

So read leases, be very careful about what they say and don't say. Who does the landscaping? Who pays for pest elimination if you find mice? Who pays for things if the plumbing, heating, or water stop working? Who pays for which utilities?

If you don't like the lease, or can't get the landlord to change what you don't like, keep looking. It's not worth the hassle you'll have later.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Reality of Network Marketing

Network marketing, multi-level marketing. People love to tell me the difference as if one is straight from the Lord and the other is really awful. But they both rely on the same basic principle: you are going to use/rely on/lean on personal relationships you have or develop to try to expand whatever this business idea is.

The difference? Well, as it's explained to me, MLM is a pyramid. When you bring people on, you make part of what they bring in, but that only goes down so far, and you have to keep bringing people on to make decent money. Network marketing is less of a pyramid, and relies more on the people you bring on making sales so you can get those cuts.

So what.

Well, the thing that occurs to me is the potential to alienate people as you try to bring them on board. I knew people in Tucson who were part of 5 of these types of businesses. You couldn't talk to them without hearing about at least one. Don't you want to save on travel? Don't you want to drink a beverage that has proven health benefits? Oh you run your own business... don't you want to have our system send cards out to your clients so they're thinking about you?

OK not everybody's like that. But what really got me thinking was a chance meeting when we first came to Boston a few weeks ago. We went to the pizza place near my old university. Some nice people sat down near us, and we got to talking. It was an enjoyable chat. Totally likeable people. And then they asked if we like chocolate. Sure! They went and got these individually wrapped chocolates, and said we should try them because they had special things in them for health and energy.

Wait, I'm allergic to a lot of things. What's in there for energy? The answer was something I'm allergic to, which I plainly stated. They STILL were pushing me to try this chocolate. Eat the whole thing. No, I wasn't comfy with that. I took the tiniest bite I could. It was OK. My husband thought it was good.

Then, they were telling us how you can make money selling these chocolates. I tried to nicely tell them that wasn't really on my list of things to do... I was kinda busy running my business world. Nope, they kept telling me how much money I could be making, and how different their network marketing biz was to MLM.

Well, we eventually got them off the topic. We exchanged email addresses. Other than the whole "join our network" portion, I thought they were nice, and hoped to hear from them. I didn't say anything, but I even thought maybe the girl might want to be our next house sitter. She seemed so nice, and I was sure the dog would love her. :)

I got an email from her the next day. All she wrote about was chocolate. Join her choco network stuff. That was really a shame. If she had emailed me friendly things, and a chocolate mention, OK I'd understand that. Fair enough. We all like to promote our businesses even in social circles. :) But the email was all choco from her network marketing email address, which oddly enough was at a domain for a company that helps you organise your NM/MLM contacts. Ugh, now I'm a contact.

Network marketing relies on the network. These people met us and decided that we're not going to be friends. We're not going to meet again for pizza. We're not going to play with my dog. They're not coming over to play Wii. We're just going to push chocolate. Not interested in choco? Haven't heard from her again. And that's a shame.

I would rather have a friend than a salesperson.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

What Defines a GOOD Person?

Last night, my husband and I ended up in a deep conversation about what is a GOOD person. Where do you draw the line between a good person and a bad person?

For me, this is the test. If you like or love someone, care about someone (or claim to), and you are comfortable watching them struggle without doing anything to help, you are not a good person.

Not all help has to be financial. There are so many things people can do that don't have to include handing someone money. But let's say you have money, and let's say someone close to you who you say you like or love is really struggling. They are hurting, maybe money is short... you COULD do something. Or all money aside, you can be a supportive friend... there is always something you can do for someone, especially someone who may be asking for help.

If you do nothing, to me, you are a bad person. I came up with this definition because I grew up around these people. I grew up around people who were very content to watch people hurt and struggle, and do nothing. It got to the point where my sister told me to not tell her what was going on in my life for fear that my issues might upset her... so she didn't help when she knew I was struggling, and then decided she just didn't want to know. But she still got in touch to talk about her, and still looked for me to help and support her.

And if they DID give someone who was struggling some money, they made sure to tell EVERYBODY so that everybody would know how great and generous they are. They'd sacrifice the dignity and privacy of the person who's struggling so that they can beef up their own image.

That is how I measure a person. The people in my life who are bad people... I've thrown them out of my life for good. I don't connect well with someone who doesn't have that instinct (or gene?) to NOT stand by idly as someone you care about hurts or struggles.

In this economy, so many are hurting and struggling. Not all the hurting is financial. If you really care about someone who is hurting, please do something for them. You don't have to give them money. Maybe no amount of money you give could solve the problem. But you can be there for them. You can open your heart and give your time. To me, that's what a good person does when he or she cares about someone.

Posted at 06:08 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)