Measuring Twitter User Value

The MrTweet service will recommend other Twitter users to you. It now also "grades" you. As I'm writing this, it rates me as follows:

• 18 Tweets per day
• 65% Conversation (and says I'm "very engaging")
• 18% Links (and says I'm "good connector")

Twitter Grader ranks me...

•  #17,862 out of over 1.3 million Twitter users
• That puts me in the top 1.4% of all Twitter users, which I think is good! :)
• 98.7 out of 100. They say this score is calculated based on how many followers I have, the power of this network of followers (not sure what that means!), the pace of your updates, and the completeness of your profile (not sure about that either!).

65% conversation for me seems about right, and what I'm shooting for. Sometimes, I look at people who follow me, and the first 2-3 pages of their tweets are all @ somebody. I often don't follow that person since I'm hoping that my Twitter pals ("tweeple" :) ) are going to say and offer interesting things.

So a higher conversation % doesn't make me more likely to follow you. Interacting with me is nice, but I'd rather you had some original thoughts you were putting out there, and not just instant message style discussions.

Want to follow my world? I use 4 Twitter accounts.

Other than that, I can only say I'm "very engaging" and a "good connector." :)

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

Coupons I Won't Use

I got a lot of coupons this month as my birthday is in February:

1. Famous Dave's (BBQ restaurant chain) sent me a coupon for a free dessert. I do like to eat there now and again, but have never had their dessert. The dinner is always too much. So that may not pull me in.
2. Cold Stone Creamery wanted to give me something for free. That sounded good! I don't go there much, maybe 4 times a year. Their birthday coupon last year pulled me in. This year, they wouldn't give me the coupon until I went to their site and gave them more information about me. Well, you have my email and birthday, and I'm on your list. You need more to give me a $4 ice cream? No thanks.
3. Best Buy sent me a coupon offering me triple Best Buy Reward points if I use my Best Buy Reward Points Mastercard... which I don't have and don't want. I'm not sure triple points would make me get in my car and drive a few miles. What happened to all those 10% off coupons they used to send me? Those would be more inspiring.

So for my birthday, companies who have my email address and birthday sent me that. Coupons I won't end up using.

I think they could have better marketing plans! The idea is to get me into your stores/eateries, and hope I don't come alone, right? So give me something good! :)

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

When Did I Become So Dangerous?

You know me! I've been blogging for nearly 4 years now, right here in this blog. I laugh at bad marketing. I enjoy good marketing. I point at companies I think aren't doing the right thing. I've called out people in my industry. I've called out big international companies. I've called out little local businesses you've never heard of because they were near where I lived. I've even called myself out!

It's what I do, and the about 85% of the point of this blog. The rest would be eBay news and commentary as well as news and info about As Was. Four years of this now. I didn't start doing this this month.

The Emperor Not Wearing Clothes Factor is huge. I like how people who are publicly threatening me want to lecture me in ethics. People blogging to tell me that professionals should stay out of others' business are in my business when they post publicly telling me what to do. :) Bloggers trying to tell me I have no right to comment about other companies where the other companies didn't ask my opinion evidently don't take their own advice... I didn't ask the bloggers' opinions about what I do. :)

Somewhere along the line, I became evidently very dangerous to some people. The people on these missions clearly feel that they need to spend time out of their day posting publicly to get my attention, and get their messages out to me. Evidently, what I've been blogging about for four years was FINE until it was about one certain company. When I blogged about the IMA, they jumped on my bandwagon. When I blogged about Frooition, it wasn't long before they wanted to show up in search for that word too, and there was a topic-less blog post throwing in some names, and magically, some links that had nothing to do with the topic. It's Google-riffic! Yet I was never told any of these posts were wrong. Nobody blogged about what a bitch I am when I told you I don't like the domain registrar Hover.

I have no agenda. I gain or lose nothing when I write a blog post saying look out for tricks my ex-landlord played, or look out for a domain registrar I don't like. I even plan to post poking fun at something I saw printed on a yogurt container! Many people enjoy my posts, and have thanked me for what I have shared or opined. I'm hoping to help people. But when all is said and done, these are my opinions without an agenda.

For those who still think I have an agenda, remember this: I gain nothing when a marketplace fails. I gain something when a new marketplace succeeds because my company can then create services we can do for those sellers. If you are looking for where I can benefit, I benefit when sellers have more places to sell, make their livelihoods, and hire my company to help them with it.

Nobody owns me. Nobody pays me to say these things. eBay doesn't tell me what to say. I get no reward from blogging or posting to forums. I'm not part of a cool club about blogging and posting to forums on a certain topic in a certain way. I don't send people out to blog or forum-post on my behalf. I don't get paid to blog or paid to Twitter. Doing my radio show costs me nothing, so I'm choosing to keep it ad-free for my listeners. I don't have paid sponsors for my radio show, people I might feel like I have to promote or defend.

I just suggest that people continue thinking for themselves. Take a look at what's being said, who says it, and what agenda he or she might have. All of the information you need has been aired in the public. There is no information you are missing to see what is really going on.

Posted at 06:35 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Commercials Drink Vodka

I saw a blog comment where someone was saying that she was going to go out there and give people her honest opinions, and wouldn't that be just fine. She wondered if someone would really question her ethics or motives if she's being honest, and if so, what's the world coming to?

I tried to tell that person that I think everybody is now suspicious of everybody. Just before she posted that blog comment, I was accused in the same blog of having authored or directed other people to author blog comments that agreed with or supported me. Evidently, it's impossible for another human who thinks for himself or herself to agree with me, so I must have written these under another name, paid for these, or told people to come and write these.

Maybe people are under more financial pressure than usual, so they're making odder or more desperate business decisions. But the astroturfing is out there! Of course, this accusation came from someone who gets paid by others to blog for them, so maybe he was superimposing himself onto me. And no, I'm still not astroturfing.

But it has made me think about trust and the accusations we hurl at people, or the idea that we just don't believe what we read. Not that we should believe everything we read. But people are now more often thinking that a positive comment they read online is probably fake. Some negative comments about companies are fake too. So much of this is manipulated.

I was telling a marketing person about my thoughts on astroturfing, and she was talking about how some vodka companies are planting hot female models in bars, and their job is to be seen buying and drinking that brand of vodka... or getting guys to buy them that drink. This is all to expose you to that brand, and make you think that's what the hot models drink... and you should too! So the hot model pretending to be interested in you may be a paid vodka drinker.

Admittedly, it's interesting marketing. It takes product promotion off the page, away from the banner ad, out of the spam email. Off the TV, radio, interstitial, etc... The product promotion is now sitting next to you drinking that drink, talking about how cool that car is, saying this sandwich tastes great, etc... But it's a commercial.

You are now surrounded by commercials. What will you believe?

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

Where Successful People Hang Out

The Whine Seller had a great blog post earlier this month that reminded me of something I wanted to write about. Hillary's comment about the most succesful people not really hanging out on discussion boards reminded me of what I wanted to share.

It started when I was telling a friend that I like to use meetup.com, which I do, and that back in Tucson, I made my best friends from people I met there. Two couples from a "dining out" group and one couple from a "small business" group. I was telling this friend that I also like to go to Law Of Attraction meetups because I do believe that you can make what you want happen.

My friend suggests that I stop going to those meetings. Huh? Why? She asked me if the people who are successfully using the Law of Attraction and creating everything they want in their lives are going to this meeting.

I'd never thought of that.

No, it's mostly people who want to create things, but haven't made them happen yet or fully. My friend pointed out that in that case, the people coming to the meetings probably are coming from a place of lacking what they want in their lives. They'll be thinking about that lack, they'll be talking about it, and that'll be their focus... not having what they want. Surrounding myself with those people won't raise my game!

So I said, OK, we'll go to the next meeting with the focus of, "Let's just meet nice people who could be friends," and not think about the rest. Husband and I went. Looked around at nearly 70 people there. Saw really bizarre people. Finally, my husband says to me, "I don't want to talk to anybody here but you. When I'm in a group like this, I'm looking for winners. I'm looking for people who have their shit together. I don't see any." I guess that's a bit judgmental, but I didn't see any either. So I think we're done with that group. :)

Hillary's blog post reminded me of that when she talked about the most successful Lulu.com authors not being part of their discussion forums. When you go to a discussion board to get help with eBay, are the most successful eBay sellers there? Probably not. They are probably very busy running their businesses, and are not hanging out on these boards. That doesn't mean that the people who are there are failures - they're not! But they may not be the top sellers on the site. And if they're the angry villagers with torches, they're probably not the most successful sellers.

My good marketing message today is think about who you surround yourself with... successful people? Complainers? Angry people? People who couldn't make things happen for themselves? Make deliberate choices to surround yourself with successful people who support you. :)

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

Linking to Your Blog from eBay

We had a question about 2 weeks ago, which was can eBay sellers link to their blogs from inside an eBay listing? We got an answer from eBay.

The short version is NO. This is because most blogs have links in the content or built into the design that either directly sell things, or take people to shopping websites that aren't eBay. So you can see how that wouldn't work for eBay. :)

You CAN link from your eBay listing to things like eBay Reviews and Guides. So if you're looking to compare products or give that kind of general info, you can use those and link there.

Where can you put a link to your blog? Not your eBay Store. But possibly on your About Me page.

The About Me policy page says (as of when I'm writing this blog post):

That means that you can't put things for sale elsewhere on the About Me page. You can't link to a shopping comparison site or shopping directory/online mall.

Since you can link to your own website from the About Me page, you can link to your own blog too. All of these links must comply with eBay's policies. If they do, they can go on the About Me page, but not in the listing.

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

The Company Who Won't Tell You Who They Are

Last week, someone called to hire us, even though his software company had recommended another company. He had called his TSAM to ask about that company, and the TSAM said to hire nobody but us. Thanks, TSAM! :)

I wanted to figure out who this other recommended company was since I'd never heard of them. I found their URL, and went right for their "Company Information" page. The page starts with, "Who are we?" but never answers the question. Right under "who are we" are paragraphs about what they do. Under that, more paragraphs about what they want to do for you.

I clicked around some more...

• So many pages just keep saying they are THE (in all caps like that) leader, or the best, or the number one _____. OK, it's easy to say that. Show it to me. If you're that good, show me your stuff, and your greatness will be obvious.
• The "customer testimonials" page is "coming soon."
• The "learn more," "portfolio," and "get a free quote" things that look like linked aren't linked, and don't take you anywhere.
• Their eBay design page has an eBay logo (against eBay rules), and two links. One link goes to someone's C drive. Not good for a company claiming to build professional websites. The other link goes to a design that looks like it tried to copy our MyShoeAddiction design but really failed.
• Their page about web hosting goes to an "oops" file not found page.
• Their website has no keyword or description meta tags. I heard those were still helpful. Why remove those?
• Their pages say copyright 2007, but according to networksolutions.com, their domain name wasn't registered until April 2008. The information about who owns their domain name is private. I can't even see what individual or company own this.

Why would who they are be such a secret both in their domain name and in the info around their website? Who the heck are these people!

And if this content is nearly 2 yrs old (copyright 2007), or this biz is nearly 2 yrs old, where is all the content? You'd think by now, they've have a portfolio and testimonials.

A lot of their website information is general stats about email usage, eCommerce growth, and things like that. I think they should have more content about why they're great, their track record, and why you should hire them.

This is the #1 company being recommended by a major software company? This is a company who wants to do you branding, marketing, and design? This reminds me of what I always say about how you wouldn't go to a dentist who had terrible teeth. :)

My theory on who these people are.

The company didn't exist before the people in it got laid off from their last job, which I think was weeks ago. They had to rush to put together some sort of business and website, but don't have any work or testimonials to show because all of their work was as their previous employer. Their last job might feel badly about laying off their in-house designers, and is still sending them work, but as an outside consulting company.

This theory is helping along by the fact that the #2 company now being recommended by this software company is a new design company formed by someone they just laid off. As in with his name on it. As in no guessing who this is. :)

We're not picking up any of the designers that just got laid off. Based on the design I have seen from them, they don't meet what we look for in creative and innovative artists.

I'm sorry for these people who got laid off. This can't be easy. They now have to start their own businesses with little or nothing to show because all of their work would be owned by their last employer. They're getting thrown the bone of some recommendations, but I'm still concerned. If these were the in-house designers, and they're good enough to be your top recommendations, why lay them off? Why not keep them, and keep making that revenue, plus keeping that work in-house and under your own name?

My advice

I wouldn't recommend this company considering how they show themselves to you and me. I think the company who recommended them should make recommendations based on who is going to do the best job for online sellers who need all the help they can get. Given our unmatched track record, I'm quite sure that my company as well as a few others are much better at this.

This company may someday be good at what they claim to do, but when I think about how much design, marketing, and branding can make or break an online seller's livelihood, I think now is not the time to experiment with a new website design company with a dodgy website.

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

Apologies On Broken Links

Hi, readers. Just a quick apology.

Once in a rare while, I remove a post from this blog. Sometimes I put up one in its place, sometimes I just remove it. I understand that either of these may make the original URL to the post just go nowhere. I wanted to apologise for that.

Obviously, if a post comes down, it comes down, and that URL won't go anywhere anymore. If I repost an edited or new version, Typepad will save the new post with a new name, and then it gets a new URL. So the old link won't go anywhere.

Someone suggested this was some great, unethical attempt for me to deceive you, and be a horrible person, or something along those cuddly, understanding lines. It's really much milder than that. :) Though if it makes you feel good to imagine that I do this for some negative, hurtful, malicious reason, then I guess you should pursue that good feeling!

Always pursue the good feeling.

I tend to think that editing a post days, weeks, or months after you've written it is actually more deceptive than just removing it. If I remove it, OK, you have a broken link, and that stinks. But if I edit it to say something totally different, that's going to throw off comments. I have seen some blog posts that were edited literally months later. I went back expecting certain content, and the content, mood, and information had totally changed. In that case, it might be better for my link to go nowhere!

I think of it like an eBay item. If you bid on a gold watch, you don't want the seller to be able to go in and change it to a rubber duckie. It won't be your preference, but it might be better for the seller to just take the item down rather than changing it. :)

Again, sorry about some of the broken links.

Posted at 06:55 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

Who Gets My Dollar?

I sent an email to my domain registrar a week or so ago asking how to turn off auto-renew. I want to keep my domains, but don't want them to automatically charge my card. I'll pay for them with the card I want when it's time to renew.

After waiting all that time, I got back an email saying my ticket was closed, and the answer was that if I don't want a domain anymore, start by cancelling all the services associated with it.

As in not answering my question. I didn't ask how to get rid of a domain. I just want to NOT auto-renew. I don't want to cancel services.

So I will take these domains and transfer all of them to another registrar. I don't need to wait a week to get an answer to a question that doesn't help. No more money for that company. Since they bought out my fave company, they've been terrible. Bye bye!

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

The Perfect Manipulation

I read a blog post yesterday that was the most perfect manipulation I've ever seen in my life. It was SO expertly crafted that I thought I'd write about it.

It was a blog post about a controversy that didn't exist, one that involved me. Here are the elements that make this blog post a deliberately-crafted manipulation, meant to make you feel certain things and believe certain things... things that aren't even true.

1. The post basically starts with my name and company name when the topic is not about me at all. I guess my name does well for search engine placement?
2. The post starts by calling me a friend to the writer. This sets you up to believe that maybe I agree with the author, or we discussed this content, or I approved of what he's going to say. Because we're friends, right? He tells you we're friends, so you think that he's not there to hurt me. He's going to help his friend, she says sarcastically.
3. The post then links to another blog post where someone decided it was a good idea to personally smear me by pulling quotes out of context from my blog and pointing at other disconnected things to try to discredit me and get you to think I'm a bitch. So this blog post written by my "friend" starts out with not only a link to the other blog post that seeks to discredit me, but a giant QUOTE from that other blog post. Let's make SURE that before you hear about anything in this "controversy," that you are GOOD and informed about what a loser one person thinks I am. :)
4. The blog post then actually AGREES with something I had said relating to this non-controversy.
5. But don't be suspended by that too long! The post continues calling me by name, and says "on a personal note..." It launches into PARAGRAPHS that include disinformation techniques like trying to talk me out of trying to "slow the growth" of another company.
   1. I have that power? I have the power to blog about some weird information I saw on a website, and SLOW the growth of a company? I don't remember seeing that power on Heroes. :)
   2. The post was written so that you would think that I was trying to do hurt another company. That's now your impression, among other falsely planted impressions.
   3. And with "a personal note" from my FRIEND (of course), you should imagine us sitting together on a dock, his arm around me, as we have this heart-to-heart... this important, personal talk that he had to put publicly in his blog. :)
6. The post says some nice things about my company. But don't be suspended by that too long! That's in there just enough so that you'll keep thinking that the author and I are friends or colleagues of some sort.
7. You don't get the chance to make up your mind about me when the first data you get are anti-me things. You don't get to decide how you think about what statements I made that the author is responding to because he never quotes my statement. He "responds" to things I never said, and he quotes someone smearing me... but never quotes what I said that is supposedly such a hot controversy that he had to write this. 
8. So you just went for "The Ride." You were taken down a deliberate path of carefully-chosen words, and the perfect order of things.
9. Hey, blog post author, don't forget to get YOUR linked company name worked into this hot hot article! Get my name in the tags, your company name in the tags, everybody's name in the tags. This is all about search placement, isn't it.
10. In the comments and discussion under the blog post, the author even went further, and agreed MORE with what I had been saying or trying to say. I think he and I are in nearly total agreement about this non-controversy and my original statements and observations.
11. Also in the blog comments? A comment from the CEO of the company I supposedly want to hurt. He seemed to be saying that he understood my original comments, and could see how I had the opinion I had. He said he didn't see any controversy, but was happy that traffic to his site spiked because of all the fuss. 
12. So there is no problem. There is no controversy. The author and I are in agreement. The CEO of the other company understood what I was originally trying to say. But you won't notice any of that based on how the original blog post is written. If you go down the writer's path, you are left thinking I'm a total loon, out to hurt some small company so I can protect eBay. NONE of this is even close to true. Zero.

There's one thing I have learned throughout my life, and that is that it's very hard to defend yourself against something you never said or did. If you can quote me, or I actually did that, then I can explain it. I can clarify it. Or I can retract it and apologise. But what do you do with something you NEVER said? Should you apologise or retract something you never said? Then people will think you said it, so that won't work. I want people to know I never said that.

I'm talking about this because I want people to be really careful when they read things. Everything has an agenda. My agenda here is to ask you to really think for yourself. Watch how things are written. Wonder what people gain from what they write or how they wrote it. Look at how information is presented... even if it seems factual, can you notice a path or storyline that is meant to make you feel a certain way about a certain person or topic?

Practice this by watching Dateline on NBC. Many of their shows have the exact same pattern. That pattern is specifically carried out to make you feel certain things at various points in the story.

1. They start by introducing you to a person. What a good person with a good family and good future. Nothing bad should EVER happen to this person!
2. Something bad happens to this person. As the viewer, you are outraged. They didn't deserve that! They are so good and had a good future!
3. Dateline will continue to show you how they or their family fought against some larger system (investigators, police, military, big corporation, etc...) to try to make things right or better.
4. It will look like the victim or his/her family is winning, and justice will be served.
5. And then the victim or his/her family gets f***'ed by the larger system! Pwned! You are OUTRAGED again! How could this happen in today's world!?
6. Sometimes, Dateline has the happy ending. Sometimes the ending hasn't come yet. But you are often left feeling outraged rather than satisfied and happy that justice was done.
7. You went for Dateline's ride. :)

The blog post author wanted me to drink his Kool Aid too, DM'ing me on Twitter before he posted this. As for what he said, well I'd LOVE to tell you since it's freaking outlandish. But thanks to the ideas of good internet etiquette that I'm choosing to follow, I won't quote what he said in private messages. I'll just say that based on the notes he was sending me, I knew he was going to post something that would make me never speak to him (again... he was already on his second chance after a previous situation that made me lose trust).

Getting one blog post in search results can't be worth so much that you're willing to hang me out to dry. A real friend wouldn't blog in response to something I blogged, and start out with links and quotes to another blog post that served no purpose other than to try to make me look bad as a person and a professional. If you need to respond to something I wrote, you point counterpoint. You state your case, you quote what I said, you don't make assumptions (ask me first if you're not sure what I meant), and you can close with your own argument. I think that would have been fair. This post lacked fairness in many ways.

I'm sorry that this author wanted to manipulate you, the reader, with how he laid things out. I'm sorry that this is the way a blog post gets written about a "friend." I'm sorry that this author is sacrificing his own integrity with posts like these. And to the author, they say turnabout is fair play, but I won't do it to you. I never have, and I'm very unlikely to choose to do it. I could easily do it. I have so many negative comments about you from other people that I could build a post JUST like yours... introduce you as my friend, quote some of these people who sound like they don't really like you, hint at something you may have said somewhere (but don't quote it), mildly agree with you, make it look like you're hurting a good, small company, and then have that heart-to-heart on the docks where I try to remind you you're a good person, and so much better than the bad guy who's trying to hurt that poor, small, helpless company.

To my readers, I just hope you'll notice when people lead you down paths. A good writer leads you down paths. The question is are you left thinking for yourself, or have you been lead into a manipulated opinion or frenzy?

It's amazing that all of this fuss is about my post about astroturfing. Astroturfing is all about manipulation... getting the public to believe campaigns for or against something through manipulation, shills, and/or unethical practices. And then I read a blog post like that. I guess the whole idea comes full circle.

Posted at 05:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Windows Vista Volume Issues

Once in a while, I get such helpful tech support for something when I couldn't find an answer anywhere on the web. I blog about it in the hopes that the next person searching will find my answers, as they tend to!

My most recent issue was that my SnapStream Beyond TV software aka BTV was being weird. It was working fine in the setup wizard, but when I went to watch TV, there was no audio. I turned the sound up, nothing. I checked for muting, nothing was muted. But still no sound. SnapStream first thought that maybe the volume was going out my microphone, but I heard nothing there. Evidently that's a Vista audio problem too, but wasn't my problem this time.

The SnapStream guys finally found what it was. Windows Vista has a volume mixer. This allows you set volumes for each program you have running. I didn't know that!

They said to right click on the volume icon in the systray (by your clock), and choose to open the mixer. Scroll to the right if you have to, and find Beyond TV. It'll only be there when it's running, so make sure it's open. Make sure it's not muted, and turn its volume up.

That worked! I hope that fixes an issue like that for you.

Posted at 03:00 AM in Web/Tech | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

I'm Not Your Problem

There are times when I come out and share an opinion (or sometimes facts) about something in my industry. Some people agree, some people don't. That's fine!

But one thing I noticed is that people who have no response to the content of what I'm saying just shoot straight for personal attacks. Over the last 2 days, I've been described by strangers as, "a scorned woman" (not sure over what), "jealous" (not sure over what), "on a short leash" (supposedly eBay controls what I say and do), and most interestingly, "queen bitch."

The first piece of "evidence" used for queen bitch? A quote taken out of context about what I said to a completely drunk girl who poured her alcoholic drink all over me at a concert. But the blogger wants you to read this and SEE the horrible person I am for my reaction to being covered with alcohol at a concert! This blogger is either a HUGE fan and reads everything I post, or REALLY had to dig long and hard to find something she could quote out of context to make me look bad. She had to go back to May 2008 for that post, and this is February 2009.

Somehow, I'm the bad guy for pointing out my opinions or facts, but you, blogger, you're the good guy when you insult and defame me. What I'm doing is so, so wrong, and what you're doing is so, so right. Can you please explain that one to me?

And these are the people from the "friendliest" marketplace? Really? Are you sure? Is this marketplace happy with this style of publicity? Is the marketplace happy that these are their loudest supporters, and the people most closely tied with this marketplace?

Evidently, if you can just discredit or defame me, whether what you say is true or not, then the problem goes away. Well, that makes the problem go away, right?

No it doesn't. Because I'm not your problem.

Let's say I post in my blog about something on a website that I think sounds potentially unethical. If I died an hour ago, does what's on that website or people's perceptions of it die with me? If the problem doesn't die with me, then I'm not the problem. I could fall off the planet, and unless the owners of that website change what it says, it could still be a marketing problem for them.

I could fall off the planet, and if the general public still thinks a marketplace is populated by wildly vocal people who evangelise on how happy they are... yet they haven't sold much on that marketplace, I wasn't your problem.

I could fall off the planet, and if the public continues to think that people who post positive things about your marketplace are "sponsored" or not genuine, then I wasn't your problem.

I could fall off the planet, but if you're not being totally truthful with your clients about the compliance of your eBay Stores, I wasn't your problem.

These are marketing issues. I'm pointing at them. I haven't called out any particular person. I've attacked nobody. I didn't call anybody out by name, and write a whole blog post about what an awful and mentally unstable bitch she is.

I know these people are only doing it to try to win an argument and make themselves look better. If they had a good answer for what I'm saying or pointing at, we'd hear that answer. But when it's all personal shots to try to make me look bad, then I guess they weren't able to come up with a valid, intelligent reply to my comments.

You can pretend I'm your problem, but I'm not your problem. I'd like you to fix your problem. You'd probably have more success if you fixed your problem. Defaming me doesn't fix your problem. The time you spent on that could have been spent fixing your problem. :)

Posted at 01:47 PM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack (0)

New eBay Stores and "Inside" Pages

Last week, I saw some interesting blog comments and some private emails that made me realise that the average eBay seller probably doesn't understand some things about why the "new" eBay Stores limit what can be designed by professional design companies.

The person who wrote to me said his eBay Store home page can still get lots of design, but he wanted to know why eBay would take away the ability to design the "inside" pages. I assume he means the pages shoppers see once they click past and away from your custom eBay Store home page. This would include the pages they see when they do a search or click on a category inside your eBay Store.

Well, thing 1, we've seen some data that says that not everybody gets past custom Store home pages. Some just get confused by an overdesigned home page, get frustrated, and leave your Store. This is called a "bounce." That's part of why we don't like to sell people on custom eBay Store home pages! But back to his question.

eBay didn't take away the right or ability to design the pages shoppers see once they're past your custom Store home page. We never had those rights. We only had the ability by writing code that broke eBay's rules, code that took elements eBay put on the page, and overwrote them, moved them, reshaped them, hid them, etc... And by putting that code where you can put your design for an eBay Store header, that design then automatically showed up on every eBay Store page including search results, category browses, and even your About Me page.

So that approach to the "advanced" design of an eBay Store was always against the rules in that it broke the "Site Interference" rule. Once eBay announced (in Jan 2009) that it was going to crack down on that rule more strongly and consistently than it had been, the style of using code to re-lay out eBay Store pages became forbidden. Without being able to drop in that code that globally re-lays things out and moves them around, the "inside" pages lose that "advanced" formatting.

There is no place inside eBay's "Manage My Store" design area that lets us say ah, this is what the home page looks like, this is what this inside page looks like, this is what this inside page looks like, etc... You can only control the header, the promo boxes, and things down the left side. We were never supposed to overdesign things, and re-lay out the whole page. People did, and evidently that didn't work because now it's banned.

And let's follow the logic trail on why it's banned! It flew under the radar a LONG time, long enough for eBay to collect data on how those Stores did, even compared to competitors' non-overdesigned Stores. My theory is still that these Stores confused shoppers, who were expecting to see typical eBay Stores. They got used to the looks and layouts, and they became familiar with what was where, making the Store easier to use, even when you landed on one you'd never been to before. But if you land on a new one, and it looks like nothing else, you have to figure it out. Where is what I'm used to? Some people will adjust and figure it out. Some will just leave.

And my theory is that if eBay found that these Stores were more likely to convert shoppers to buyers, and to help them find what they wanted, eBay would have embraced that style of design. My theory is that that style of design is not as effective as something that stays closer to the eBay Stores paradigm. And my theory is also that if eBay saw more sales and therefore more eBay revenue from these kinds of Stores, they would have wanted everybody to design like that.

But first, they refused to give any Stores designed like that any Best in Stores awards. Then, they decided to ban the design style. eBay has no good reason to do that if this design style were making sellers (and eBay) more money. eBay wants more sales and more money, and will adjust policy to support them making money! I believe this adjustment is that... I believe sellers do better and eBay makes more money when eBay Stores are not overdesigned.

I just wanted to make sure that sellers understood what the design options are, what eBay took away, and what was never really there for us designers.

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

Astroturfing: Fake Grassroots Campaigns

This week, I learned a new word. My staff sent me a link to Wikipedia's article on Astroturfing and a link to a Dilbert cartoon (click for the full size).

Astroturfing is when something is meant to look like a grassroots, spontaneous show of support for something (or railing against something) when in reality, it's being manipulated in some way people may not find totally ethical. Some will find it ethical. You make your own call. But because this effort isn't really grassroots, it gets the term, "astroturf," referring to fake grass. Clever!

Some of you may remember some of my January 2009 whistleblowing in which, among other things, I was outing some blog shilling and hired-gun forum posters that another company was using. Paying your staff to post in blogs or forums as people who just HAPPEN to love one company and hate certain competitors by name... I'll call that astroturfing. Staff pretending to be happy customers of the company they work for, people I don't know pretending to be my unhappy clients... I think these are unethical.

I remember when the eBay Solutions Directory came out. One of the first ratings I saw was a guy who worked for Marketworks gave it a good rating as if he were a customer. Even if he did use the system, I'm not sure that's a completely unbiased opinion or rating. :)

I remember another one from a few years ago. An infamous eBay seller FINALLY got his permanent suspension, and went on to try and be an eBay author and seminar guy (you know what I think of that!). He had been caught shill bidding (and shill feedback) AGAIN, this time the shills included his accountant, his wife's account, and evidently his mother's eBay account. His off-eBay "eBay expert" efforts offered all kinds of "make money on eBay" products. Years after the suspension, I remember looking at his testimonials page one day, and reading a testimonial from a guy who went on about how much this guy's system helped his sales.

Well guess who wrote that testimonial? It had the accountant's name on it, the same guy who was caught up in the shill bidding and shill feedback scandal, and the same guy who ALSO got a permanent suspension for his role in the whole thing. I really wanted to know how someone who isn't allowed to sell on eBay anymore could be using a product, and giving an "unsolicited" and "honest" testimonial about it. All very bizarre. But I think we can call that astroturfing!

Wikipedia gave some other recent examples:

• In Aug 2007, Comcast was experiencing tough negotiations with the Big Ten Network. So they allegedly sent staffers to pose as college students, and post negative things about the Big Ten Network on various message boards.
• Hands Off The Internet (HOTI) purports to be a campaign for internet users' rights but in fact the site is owned by big telecom companies and is actually a front to push the telecom industry's objections to internet neutrality.
• In late 2008, in Osaka, Japan, McDonald's acknowledged hiring people to stand in line for a new hamburger release. The part-time workers were given a stipend for the product that were to be included in the store's sales figures.

As Was doesn't astroturf. Never has, never will. Anything nice you see written about us was what someone wanted to write. No payment, no reward. Anything written about us on the web is real. I do not hire, pay, or reward anybody to write about us or against other companies. And if I have something to say about someone, I come out and say it, for better or worse, under my own name. I don't hide behind other people and pretend I'm not involved. I think people deserve honesty and everything up front.

And this isn't just about any particular company. I have named some companies here, but there are heaps of companies doing this with varying degrees of cleanliness and dirtiness. :) I believe that astroturfing is killing people's faith in who they meet in forums and blogs, and if testimonials can be believed.

So what do you think of astroturfing? Ethical? Not ethical? Dirty? Not dirty?

Posted at 03:00 AM | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack (0)

Analysing "eBay Alternatives", Part 2

Earlier this week, I posted Analysing "eBay Alternatives" (part 1). The comments that post got made me want to go a bit deeper into this whole "eBay Alternatives" thing. I judge each marketplace on it's own, not by how it compares to Amazon or eBay or anything else. A good marketplace has to stand on its own.

If we're talking eBay alternatives, then the question would theoretically be, "Where would you shop if eBay stopped existing tomorrow?" I think the answers you'd see the most would be Zappos, Amazon, and Craigslist, but that doesn't mean they're alternatives. You can sell on eBay and sell on Amazon and Craigslist. So to me, they might be competitors, and are only alternatives if you can't or refuse to sell on eBay.

When judging a marketplace, there are many things I'm looking for:

• Strong branding... a name people can remember, spell, and say to friends.
• Innovation, meaning doing something truly new. Integrating things that already exist may NOT be doing something that's truly new. For example, zooming in on pictures... nice! But not an innovation when sellers can use something like magnify.it. I like to see true innovations, really new ground being broken.
• Complete independence. Your reputation on Amazon is comprised solely of your selling history on Amazon. Any marketplace that wants to import your eBay feedback is leaning on eBay for the seller's reputation. I think it would be more appropriate for that seller to establish his or her reputation freshly on that marketplace.
• Openness or some sort of API. I think in order to have better tools and adoption, a marketplace needs to open itself up to developers so that using the marketplace is faster and easier. Listing needs to be less complicated, especially for sellers with thousands or tens of thousands of skus.
• Logical processes. How is the seller notified that he or she sold something? After a sale, is the seller given what he or she needs to process the transaction? If a seller is saying he'll take an offer on his price, will the checkout make it easy for me to make an offer? How do I make that offer?
• Logical nomenclature. Some marketplaces create so many branded or cutesy names for things that you have the potential to make people feel alienated... like hey, I don't know what it means for an item to be "In a Bonanza." Dictionary.com didn't help me understand what that might be. So that might alienate me when I feel like I don't speak the site's language.
• Seller trustworthiness and its measurement. eBay's "PowerSeller" designation is partially based on ratings so that in theory, a bad seller doesn't get to be a PowerSeller. I know that hasn't been executed perfectly, but that's the theory. How does your marketplace measure trust? PowerSeller meant really nothing for so long. Trust designations can be meaningless or misleading if not thought out and executed really well. An icon next to a seller's name when they paid for that icon, won that icon for helping promote the marketplace, being an early adopter of the marketplace, or anything else that doesn't really represent trust or seller performance is a faulty system, in my opinion.
• Marketing and differentiation. This is where marketing comes in. Why should I shop here? Will I ever hear of this place? Do you show up in my search results? And how about shoppers who are happy there, and keep coming back? This is where I think Etsy is doing a good job. I know to NOT go there to get a Wii system, but I can go there to get earrings someone made to look like Wii controllers. Or maybe someone has knit a Wii cozy. Etsy's marketing has made me understand when and why I'd shop there.
• Shoppers with open wallets. This is really it. Traffic. Eyeballs. Shoppers ready to spend money. Not tire-kickers. You could have all of the above points, and still potentially fail if you do not attract the buyers. 

This week, I did the rare thing of buying something online that I didn't buy from eBay. Nobody had cases of my favourite pasta, which costs me $2.69 per box in local stores. So I went to an online search to see who came up. I was ready to buy from ANY reputable looking website with the items I wanted and a proper checkout.

So who came up in my search? uBid? eBid? e-Crater? Bonanzle? Etsy? CQout? WeBidz? Any of the other people using that open source software that lets anybody claim to have a marketplace that competes with eBay? Jim's House of Pasta? OK, I made them up, but I expected to find regular sellers' websites, or even distributors for the pasta I like. I was looking to buy cases, not boxes. That's how much pasta I eat. :)

The first 2 search results were shopping.com. I didn't bother clicking on them since I tend to not hang out on shopping comparison sites. Too many clicks to get to the end page, that always just names websites I knew anyway.

The next 2 search results were Amazon. I was SHOCKED. They had cases of my favourite pasta! A case in every shape, every variation. Free slow shipping. The per-box price worked out to $1.95. That is a HUGE savings over my local store. And it turns out that shopping.com would have dumped me on Amazon for this pasta.

The 5th search result was a site with the name "Morgue" in it. Pass. The rest of the first page of search results were blog posts and commentary on the pasta. Sale to Amazon! In two weeks, I should get 36 boxes of pasta. :)

I will always try eBay first. But I am not poking around all these other sites, these now hundreds of "eBay Alternatives," to find my box of pasta. I searched eBay, and then I searched Yahoo (yeah, I'm old school). Hundreds of marketplaces and private sites had the chance to get my attention, and it was all Amazon. These were all natural results. Nobody bought my keywords.

So good luck to "eBay Alternatives." I don't like to see anybody fail (well, unless your dodgy practices make you deserve it :) ). I hope these marketplaces find success, but in my opinion, they need so much more than an award, a logo, and cute names for stuff. They need shoppers with open wallets who keep coming back.

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

Should Libel Be A Crime?

I found an article earlier this week about how the state of North Carolina is working on a bill to make libel a crime. Evidently, they are finding that the amount of libel and lies in blogs and other internet postings is huge, and is going mostly unchecked.

Well that makes sense. Right now, what incentive is there to NOT lie in a blog? What incentive is there to NOT purposefully damage or defame another person or company in a blog or online post of some sort? I am all about truth, and I think that if it takes making lying a crime to get people to not do it, then make it a crime. They're looking at making this a Class 2 misdemeanor, which includes carrying a concealed weapon, resisting an officer, and simple assault.

So it looks like NC is thinking about classifying this where they put assault, and the max would be 60 days in jail. I think the interesting question would be this: blogs and internet discussions are global. If a person in NY defames a company that's a corporation of NV, but it's read by people of NC, can you ask NC to arrest the person libelling that company? Who has to be in which state for this to take effect?

What About Free Speech?!?!?

I recently blogged about free speech and what people think are their First Amendment rights, so this is timely!

To recap, your right to Free Speech is more about being able to say something in public without the Secret Police renditioning you. :) It doesn't mean you can say anything, any time, on any topic. It doesn't mean you can say untrue things, especially lies designed to hurt how a company does business.

Remember that your right to Free Speech stops at my right to not be lied about around the internet! I'm FOR the idea that lying, especially lies designed to hurt business, could be a crime. Maybe that'll stop people from that kind of crap. Shame that people NATURALLY don't choose to NOT lie as that would give me more faith in humanity. :) But maybe fear of the law will make people think twice.

Posted at 03:00 AM in That's Good Marketing | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack (0)

Phelps Smokes Pot

The whole Michael Phelps thing makes me think about how we hold people up to a standard of perfection that NONE of us fit.

It also reminds me of a comedian's bit about how doing the Olympics stoned is MUCH harder than doing it straight, so the Olympics should be OK if you smoke pot. It was funnier when a comedian said it.

But here is my point. The people who are judging him and cancelling his endorsements are probably people who aren't perfect. They probably do drugs since most people do or have tried them. They might cheat on their wives. They may commit things their religion tells them are sins. And they're judging this guy?

Is he a bad influence on kids? I guess that depends on how you raised your kids. I was always taught to stand up for myself, believe in what I wanted to believe, be honest, and don't follow the crowd. Those of you who know me would say those lessons sure took hold. :)

But they also tool hold as a kid. When I was a teenager, everybody was smoking, drinking, and at least trying some drugs and sex. I was doing none of it. My "idols" were the British and Australasian bands and musicians you'd classify as New Wave or New Romantic. They were famous coke-heads, smokers, tokers, and in some cases, heroin fiends. They had sex with anything that had a pulse, and discarded it an hour later. I didn't think I had to do any of those things.

Who do I think is a bad influence on kids?

• Dick Cheney for doing insane things from war crimes to shooting people in the face, and never getting caught. Bad lesson for kids when we're normally teaching them the bad guy will be caught and punished!
• Octomom, the woman who just had octuplets even though she already had 6 kids. I saw the interview with her. She had a fake nose, fake lips, and 14 babies. She'll sell her story to try to afford to raise these kids, and her own parents are speaking out against her. TV psychologists everywhere are saying that her kids obsession is to play out her bad relationship with her mother. I think she's a bad influence! Feeling empty? Change your face and have lots of kids who have to love you.
• Any celeb we give huge attention for being a total mess or something they don't want to be. We look at Jessica Simpson's weight more than her singing. Even if you don't like her singing, the attention shouldn't be on her weight. We look at Amy Winehouse's insane personal life more than her music. We look at Britney's wild ride more than her music. We glorify her teen sister's pregnancy. We teach kids that if you do these bizarre things, you could be in magazines! Everybody might talk about you and rally around you. I think Octomom was counting on that.

I think if we're worried about who is influencing our kids, we should give the kids stronger messages about being their own people... finding their own beauty and talents. At least Phelps said, "Yeah I did that," rather than all the athletes who try to claim they didn't take steroids.

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

Analysing "eBay Alternatives"

Once upon a time, I told people to not bother with Yahoo Auctions, Amazon Z Shops, or Overstock Auctions. And most sellers I know either never bothered, or those who did saw very few sales from all that effort.

So what about now? Who should we be trying or avoiding?

When I analyse marketplaces, I am looking for innovation. I am looking for the site that will really draw shoppers with open wallets. With open source software, it's easy to just create a site that lets people sell. You can now have that set up in less than a day. But that doesn't mean anybody should shop or sell there.

It's like what Seth Godin said about the Microsoft Zune MP3 player. It's known to be hugely inferior to an iPod with fewer features and a design fewer people like. Seth's point was if you're not making an iPod killer, why go into the marketplace at all? If you don't have the MP3 player that'll make people throw away their iPods, then what are you doing?

I see it similarly. If you don't have the marketplace that makes me forget to shop eBay or Amazon at least some of the time, then why bother? What do you have?

I remember feeling that Overstock Auctions were just not innovating. They seemed to just be copycatting eBay in so many areas, and charging fewer fees, as if fees are the ONLY thing that could be better than what eBay is doing.

What about now? I have my eye on two main sites as possible eBay Alternatives or even competitors. Etsy and Zappos. I think Zappos will become a real contender to the eBay and Amazon space. I think they are doing SO MUCH right, with some innovation. And I think Etsy is doing a good job differentiating themselves and coming up with a niche. I would always like to see sellers given more chance to design and brand, but maybe that'll come with time. I think it's gaining popularity for sellers, but more importantly for buyers, who know what to expect there.

Marketplaces are all about traffic. What about some of the other ones, including up-and-coming ones like Bonanzle you may hear about in blogs and around Twitter? I don't believe yet. Sellers I know who are trying it have so far reported few or no sales. One seller I know said that so far, her buyers were other sellers, who then emailed her asking her to check out their "booths" (Bonanzle Stores/Showcases). I am not sure buyers know to shop there. I am a huge online shopper, and I'm not sure why I should shop there... especially when so far, Bonanzle sellers seem to mostly be eBay sellers. I could buy from them on eBay, where I know the law and I'm comfy. And if they're not on eBay, someone else with that stuff is. :)

Time always tells. It will be interesting to do a follow-up to this say in July or August when people are planning holiday selling, and see where sellers are focusing their time, energy, and inventory.

EDIT: Added after the first two comments appeared below.

If you are commenting about Bonanzle, please let us know if you are part of the Bonanzle Action Club. Thanks.

Posted at 03:00 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (12) | TrackBack (0)

How To Not Be My Facebook Friend

Here's a slice of a bizarre conversation I had in Facebook last week after I messaged a guy I don't know who tried to add me as a friend. This guy's friends looked like a who's who of my high school yearbook, all people I either didn't know or weren't friends with. For a moment, it was a high school vomitous moment!

Here's how to NOT be my friend on Facebook.

Me: Hi. I have a friend request, but I don't think I know you. How do we know each other? Thanks. ;)

Him: Debbie, we went to school together class of '89. Massapequa H.S.

Me: I was introduced to Fishbone's Truth and Soul by you I believe. Would that be you? :)

Him: No, wrong Mike. I used to hang out with David **** and Doug **** and Carlos ****.

Me: I'm sorry, but I don't know any of those people. I typically have an excellent memory, but I just don't think you and I knew each other. Were we in any classes together?

Him: ok, I never met you. I just found you on here and decided to add you as a friend. And we both just happened to graduate the same high school in 89. Hmmmmm Think Debbie

Me: People find me on Facebook who I have never met, and add me as a friend. I ask them how we know each other, and the answers vary, or I get no answer at all. I only add friends who are actually friends or are in my business circles.

Me: Your name and your face are not familiar to me. The people you say you hung with are not familiar to me. You didn't mention any of my friends as people you were friends with. I clearly didn't date you, and I don't remember you from any of my classes.

Me: I asked you if we were in any classes together, and rather than answering that, you send me sarcasm and ask me to think. Our graduating class was 630 people, and I think I never met about 500 of them. :) I think "we went to the same school at the same time" may be the best we're going to do here.

Him: Have a nice life.

Posted at 06:02 AM in That's Bad Marketing | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack (0)

Tax Cuts Don't Work

I'm no economist. I'm a musician and marketing head. And I can't make sense of the whole idea that what the country needs is more tax cuts.

What did you do with that money that Bush sent you last year? What would you do now if the government gave you a larger tax refund or sent you a check? Pay the mortgage? Make the car payment? Pay the credit card company that was calling you every week? These are important things, but guess what. That money goes to banks.

Sending your "stimulus" money to banks (loans, mortgages, school loans, etc...) doesn't feed the economy.

• It probably didn't create a job, especially with so many banks outsourcing call centres to Asia.
• It didn't give the local cabinet maker an order, which made him have to go buy wood, supplies, and tools, feeding multiple businesses.
• It didn't give the steel factory an order. 
• It didn't book you a week at a hotel, keeping hotel staff in business, making that hotel buy food, and bringing tourism money to that area... maybe even giving an airline some money for flights. The airlines can then pay staff.

Hey, I wouldn't say no to a tax cut or the government sending me a check. Money I can pretend is free money is a better deal than any internet scam. :) But if people take that money and send it to a bank, then we haven't really stimulated the economy. The economy lives on spending, and it thrives on spending that "trickles up" to business-to-business spending.

It's about demand. When people stop buying, businesses don't need to produce as much. When they produce less, they don't need as much staff or supplies. They lay people off, and they buy fewer materials from their suppliers. The suppliers struggle, and have to lay off. They need fewer of their raw materials, so someone above them sees their revenue decline.

It's something to think about. One thing I kept hearing during 2008 was that the decline in housing was having huge effects on so many other industries.

• People not buying or selling their homes meant fewer people doing home improvements.
• Every company and industry associated with home improvement was then hurting.
• Everybody who supplied those companies and industries was then hurting.
• Fewer people wanting new landscaping, rippling out to their staff and suppliers.
• Fewer home pool redos or new installs, rippling out to their staff and suppliers.
• Fewer cabinet orders, rippling out to their staff and suppliers.
• Fewer tile, carpet, and flooring orders, rippling out to their staff and suppliers.
• Fewer window replacements, rippling out to their staff and suppliers.
• And the list goes on, and this is all from fewer houses being bought and sold.

It's amazing to think how a dive in what we think of as 'one industry' really rippled out to so many small and large businesses. That's why making sure that people have ongoing incomes to keep spending is how I think this needs to be fixed. Creating jobs, giving people salaries they can then spend, spiralling UP instead of spiralling down.

That's why I like the idea of infrastructure spending. Give people jobs improving our utilities. Let's have really awesome utilities that don't fail when 6 inches of snow fall. Let's get everybody on the internet. Let's make it easier to get around where we live without driving all these cars. Let's re-pave these awful Boston roads. :) These things improve lives, and put money into the economy by giving people reliable salaries. They can then care for their families, pay their bills, and have money for that Disney trip.

That's how I see it.

Posted at 07:58 AM in Just An Observation | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack (0)

This Is My Lowest Price

The prices we put out there are the best we can do. We think that's fair to you. All of our clients pay the same prices (unless you worked with us years ago under different pricing). We don't negotiate or haggle. We run some promotions from time to time.

We think that's good marketing. We think that people whose pricing is negotiable aren't doing their best to give you their best pricing.

I recently called to get another cable box. I was told it's $5.95/month just to have it. I told them oh, I didn't really want to pay for that. No problem! They have a promotion that'll give it to me free for 18 months, no strings, no contracts. Just free, and evidently because I asked.

I recently had a billing issue with Vonage, who was trying to bill me for an account I had cancelled TWICE. At first, they couldn't do anything, and I needed to pay up, so I started pushing against them because I didn't want to pay for ANY of this. Then, they wanted an extra $40 to cancel the account (again). Then, they realised the mistake, and offered to remove the charges they were chasing me to pay (the months of service on the cancelled account), but they still wanted the $40. Then, they wanted me to pay the $40 and offered me $120 of credits on another account of mine to cover that $40 and apologise for my trouble. The more I pushed, the closer I got, but I had to push for an HOUR to get this done. I asked the guy why he couldn't have just made this resolution happen the FIRST time I asked! He didn't seem to have an answer.

Ever book a hotel room while talking to that hotel on the phone? The hotel rate? $199. OK do you have anything lower? Well, we have $169. OK, and do you have any AAA rates? Yes, $154. You have to ask MULTIPLE times to get a hotel's best rate.

So I understand people asking if my prices are flexible, and I understand people being used to having to ask a few times in case the number of times you ask makes the difference. But we are giving the best prices we can give. Despite many clients and even some eBay staff saying we could charge a lot more for what we do and give, we chose to not raise any prices for 2009. We're doing the best we can for you!

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

eBay Scam Spam

Um, do I compete with the people sending these things out?

http://www.seomoz.org/blog/the-best-spam-submission-ever

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

Jewellery Is A Necessity?

I'm getting this commercial for some sort of home shopping network that sells jewellery. I think it's called The Jewelry Network or something like that.

The commercials show women wearing lots of big, sparkly, coloured stones, and they're talking about how important jewellery is to their look. Um, ok, maybe it is.

Finally, one of the women says that jewellery is a luxury that, for her, is a necessity.

Really? In this economy? I'd think many women have cut down their jewellery shopping and home shopping budgets, especially if they can't pay the mortgage or are losing their jobs.

Necessity? Well, would you say more than food or water? Housing? Clothing? I'd like to know where these people place jewellery among other things we'd all agree are necessities.

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

Understanding Venture Capital

I'm trying to understand venture capital. :) I don't always get it. I was in the web and online industry in the late 1990s during the bubble (and then the bust). I saw companies that seemed to have no business model and/or no revenue model get MILLIONS, which they promptly spent on big parties. :)

I also read up on VC companies and who they fund. Often, I haven't heard of any of these companies, even when they are in the web and online space. You'd think I'd have heard of them, and I haven't. So they have millions, they're in my circle, I'm usually the early adopter, and I haven't heard of them. I sometimes think that's not the best sign.

I went to an Open Coffee meeting last week, and it was great fun. Really nice guys (yeah, all guys). Some where entrepreneurs, some CEOs, some marketing guys, and some working for investors. Nice mix. It was a small group, so I finally asked someone to explain to me some of the investments I've watched in my industry that didn't totally make sense to me.

One of them said that when he talks with companies who are looking for funding, he asks them to write out an equation.

• What do you charge each of your customers? Let's say it's $1000.
• How many customers do you HOPE to have? He says he uses "hope" since although it's not realistic, it's a look at a best-case scenario. Let's say you're been getting 500 customers per year, so your big hope number is 5,000 customers.
• That would mean that you "hope" to have $5M in revenue. This isn't even your profit. This is just revenue. And let's face it, the best case scenario is probably not the one that will be the reality.
• He said that anybody getting more than that in VC money may be in trouble or may be getting too much money for this to be a VC success.

The guys at the meeting also said that traditionally, VCs were looking to make about 10X on their money. That means if they invest $10M in you, in a certain number of years, they would expect to get $100M from you in some way... maybe you go public, maybe you are acquired. They said that in this economy, some VCs are even OK with making 4X on their money. But that still means that if you got $3M, these guys will expect at least $12M at some point.

So I guess I still don't get it. It seems out of balance to me. I don't understand how a company with a solid business model can get millions of dollars in "help," and in some cases, not even be able to make a profit. I'm sure someone will explain this to me, but some of these gambles seem really bizarre to me.

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