November 2003

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Cool eBay Tools Holiday Newsletter

The latest insider Tips & Tricks for eBay
November 2003 - Volume 3 No. 8

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Since I just roasted my "practice" thanksgiving turkey (and finished the Halloween candy, I know it must be holiday selling time! Not only selling - but buying too! I really don’t have time to battle the stores for my holiday gifts, do you? I didn’t think so. You know all the deals are on eBay! I've found some new eBay features, so read on....

URGENT If you have an eBay store read this

In the last few days, eBay has made major changes to eBay stores. If you haven't visited your store lately, be sure to go there as soon as you can. You may find that your previous color choices make things look beyond unreadable. I changed mine quickly by using custom colors and using a Gallery style layout. (You can see my store here). There are lots of new options available for stores, and now you can choose your own colors for the store. To get really good colors, you will have to input HTML color hexadecimal codes. Don't faint, eBay has an easy to use HTML color chart. Of course, you may need other colors. Here's a link to a super page I found with a large variety of colors. Click here for the chart

There are many more options now, including the opportunity to design your own store home page from scratch using HTML code. I wish I had the time to produce something exciting, but I'm happy with the page that eBay provides (for now).

Holiday Contest
If you personally design a super-looking eBay store home page send me a link. I'll pick one at random on January 1st and reward one reader's creativity with a very small bundle of eBay and Dummies gear! (The winner will be announced in the January issue).

Secret Revealed! Find popular search "keywords" on eBay

I found a couple of different ways to get this information. One is through Category Search. From the eBay home page, click a main category from the list on the left side of the page. You'll be at the Category portal. Some portals will have a list of popular searches buried way below the list of subcategories. Click here  for an example in the Books Category.

Some categories won't have popular searches on the portal page. If you don't see such a list, click a sub-category. In this next case, The Music category has no list, so I clicked on Memorabilia. Scroll down, and look on the left hand side of the page, in the box titled, More on eBay, Popular Searches. Voila!

eBay Home Page Promotion calendar

New users traditionally arrive at eBay via the home page. As you know, the home page presents some interesting promotions that draw in new buyers. Below is a chart of the upcoming promotions. See if you can't list something in these categories so as to benefit from this free boost.

November	Week 2 & 3	Holiday Home	Home Collectibles
November	Week 4	Holiday Gift Giving	Apparel, Jewelry
December	Week 1, 2 & 3	Holiday Catalog	Video Games, Toys, Consumer Electronics, Jewelry, Sports & Entertainment
December	Week 4	New Year Preparation	Consumer Electronics, Photo, Apparel, Jewelry, Sports

New Easy To Buy Promotion

eBay will be promoting "Easy To Buy" items throughout the site from for the holidays through December 19. As a seller, you qualify to promote yourself if your item is brand new, can be purchased using Buy It Now and PayPal, and come with $500 PayPal Buyer Protection. (You must be a PayPal verified Business or Premier member). You also must have a 50 or more feedback rating with 98% positive comments. If you qualify, you can get some special HTML code to put in the bottom of your listings (I've already placed them in my auctions, click here for an example - scroll down the auction page - the Easy To Buy graphic is displayed below the description).

You can get the code for your own holiday auctions by scrolling to the bottom of this eBay page.

Add to Calendar feature

You may have noticed that in the newer listings, under the Time Left area (at the top of the auction page) there is a new link to Add to calendar. It is only displayed in auction (not fixed price) listings with the Buy It Now feature. It disappears when there is only 2 hours left in the auction,

What does this do? If the buyer's calendar program and browser support this feature, ( Internet Explorer 6, and applications like Outlook) clicking on this link will open an appointment window with the listing details pre-filled. You then need to click "Save and Close" and the reminder will be added to your personal calendar. Once the reminder is set, you will be notified by your calendar program before the listing ends.

Seems like someone is trying to do an end run around automated sniping. I think I'll stick with the My eBay "Watch this item" feature. I may be paranoid, but I don't like foreign objects placed on my computer - cookies are bad enough!

New eBay Charity Portal

This makes me feel really good. In my Starting an eBay Business book, I wrote about a wonderful charity auction website, MissionFish. They have provided the internet with the best fundraising auctions for years. I guess eBay got wise about them. (Maybe they read my book?) Anyway, eBay is rolling out a partnership with MissionFish, eBay Giving Works. It gives eBay sellers the chance to run auctions to benefit the non-profits of their choice. MissionFish has thousands of non-profits registered and verified. These auctions will run on the regular eBay site and will be signified by a new blue and white ribbon icon. The seller can choose the percentage of the auction proceeds that will be donated to the charity, and the auction will reflect that figure.

If you want to suggest a non-profit, or want to run an auction to benefit your local organization. (Just think, your next school rummage sale could be on ebay). Click here to see if your favorite charity is listed, or for information on how your non-profit can hold their own sale on eBay.

New Magazine: BEST

I'm so lucky to be part of a new magazine, BEST. The premiere issue just hit the stands this week and it looks like a smashing success. I write a column on online shopping. Best is a shopping magazine focused on the products and experiences that embrace an upscale lifestyle - slanted towards a male audience! If you see it on the stands - be sure to pick up a copy! The premiere issue of Best features Mark Cuban, owner of the Dallas Mavericks National Basketball Association (NBA) franchise and CEO of HDNet, a leading provider of HDTV satellite programming, on the cover - and Mick Fleetwood, drummer and founder of the rock supergroup Fleetwood Mac, serves as guest contributing editor for the launch issue, offering his picks for high-tech gadgets. Fun Times!

Questions?

If you have eBay questions, let me know and I'll try to answer them in future newsletters.