My eBay seller community site for sale

As some of you may know, I recently built an online community site for eBay sellers, helping them protect themselves against bad and unprofitable bidders (since that eBay doesn’t allow sellers to leave negative feedback on bidders anymore).

The site has been getting rave reviews from ebay sellers and industry bloggers. Even the Wall Street Journal called me to ask me about it!

I’m looking to sell it now as I need cash for my next project! (and I like building things more than I like managing them…;-) )

 

eBay (a)Live and Kicking Sellers

“Next item on the block is eBay auctions: Going once, going twice, gone – to the big retailer in the back.”

Ebay is moving radically away from their roots – in what seems like a desperate attempt to boost their stock price. There’s a new sheriff (CEO) in town and all the mom-and-pop merchants who’ve made a living or sought additional income from eBay are pushed aside in favor of big businesses – like Buy.com using eBay as a fixed-price outlet for their overstock.

While eBay isn’t denying anybody from setting up their lemonade stand on the site, their new policy and fee changes are greatly favoring retailers with large, fixed price inventories over the little guy doing auctions. In addition, they are revising the revolutionary mutual feedback system between buyers and sellers that created a sense of trust. Only buyers can leave feedback on sellers, and sellers, unless they have something positive to say, are unable to leave buyer feedback on the transaction. Now sellers are unable to know if the bidder on their auction is a reputable buyer or someone who doesn’t like to pay for auctions they’ve won, or returns everything they buy damaged.

Furthermore, there are already reports of buyers extorting sellers for better deals after the sale is made using this new feedback system as leverage. This is a tough pill to swallow for merchants who’ve spend years building their eBay presence and reputation.

eBay Live, a show that traditionally feels more like a revival meeting than a business convention, is starting today. I wonder if the tone will change this year?

Never before have sellers been this critical and upset – resulting in the creation of a cottage industry of services, such as RepXchange – where sellers find new protection in sharing their blocked bidder lists, to fill in the gap where eBay has left a void.

The Demise of eBay?

After years of having pioneered reciprocal feedback and reputation management between buyers and sellers, eBay wants to abandon that system in favor for one where only buyers can leave negative feedback on sellers.

eBay’s reasoning is this: buyers who receive negative feedback are less likely to go back to eBay to shop. Why? Because sellers don’t want the business of buyers who have slighted other sellers in the past. eBay makes money on a transaction, whether it’s a deal ‘gone sour’ or not, thus they don’t want the seller to have a reason to cancel bids.

This ‘customer is always right’ model is more in line with how traditional retail works both online and offline where the merchant is the only party being scrutinized. However, this is a radical departure from the peer-to-peer roots of eBay, where the small, independent seller would be protected against buyer fraud or misbehavior.

Regardless of eBay’ s spin, this is not a win for them or the consumer. Well-behaved buyers will only suffer from this change as their reputation, just like a seller’s reputation, can be used as a valuable currency that brings in savings and efficiency to the market.

1. A buyer with a good reputation is not at risk of having their bid for a product canceled, whereas a buyer with a bad reputation will.
2. When dealing only with buyers with good reputation, the seller is able to offer products at a lower cost because they don’t have to factor in the cost of potential frivolous complaints, returns or buyer fraud.

As a former power-seller on eBay, I found that one of the most time consuming, and profitability-challenging parts of selling on eBay was to deal with customers who exploited the already ‘sacrosanct’ status they enjoyed on the site.

This new direction will cause many eBay sellers to look for alternative outlets or stop selling altogether. The ability to know and qualify your customer was a key advantage that the eBay platform had over other outlets. Adding this to eBay’s recent increases in the transaction costs from sellers, sellers are finding that eBay is turning into an undesirable venue to do business.

Business must be good when you don’t care about prospects

Ed Kelly wrote a story on MediaPost today about underperforming reps at online publishers that prompted me to vent a little myself about the clueless, front-end client management I’m experiencing. Let me start by bashing with the metrics and measurement companies. 

My company was (is) seeking a reputable 3^rd party to validate the performance of our advertising technology. I did my research and identified 5 companies whose service offering seemed to match my requirements, and I sent them our RFP. With metrics being such a hot topic nowadays, with new measurement companies popping up on every corner, you would think that these companies would welcome a rather sizable RFP.

Not so much. Not a single of my prospective vendors honored me with an email or call back. Not even for a qualifying question. Business must be good.

In all “fairness”, I just sent them an email with a brief overview of who we were, and summarized key deliverables in the RFP. I also attached the RFP and mentioned the names of a handful of large online advertisers who would take part in the study. You might think, “why didn’t you call to follow up?”

Frankly, I don’t think I should have to work hard to offer a vendor my business. If they take prospects for granted like this, they don’t deserve my business.

Having been at the receiving end of an RFP in previous jobs, I understand that critical importance of qualifying your leads. You simply don’t want everybody’s business. However, I still made sure that I always responded to every lead in a professional manner. I know personally that I’ve even recommended companies that turned my business down, just because they did it the right way. I’ve even re-engaged a such companies after changing jobs. 

Business must be good.

Google to enter clean energy business

I’m extremely excited to see that Google has chosen to turn green by investing in companies that offer green energy technology, as well as invest in its own research for the development of renewable energy.

Granted, the real-world impact of Google’s involvement might be small at this stage, but it’s a significant step forward in the right direction, and it sends a strong message:

• Google is showing that it makes business sense for companies to turn green.
• Google is showing that protecting the environment is every business’ business. Companies can and must step outside their core business to solve environmental challenges, instead of expecting under-funded, renewable research initiatives to magically produce results.
• Google is betting on that being environmentally conscious will pay dividends with consumers who subscribe to a green philosophy. Strangely enough, this is how capitalism may be the best ideology to save the environment.

http://www.news.com/Google-to-enter-clean-energy-business/2100-13844_3-6220341.html?tag=st.num

One Page eCommerce Websites

I come across these one page websites from time to time. Most often via a link in an email newsletter that I shouldn't have subscribed too. These websites (i.e. one-pagers) are sometimes dozens of 'screens' long and tout one product, and one product only. 

The benefit of the one page is that it seems like such a quick read. But it never is. These pages are pushing products with a feel similar to cable TV infomercials running in the AM hours. ("If that wasn't enough, you'll also get widget Z free for just trying our product!")

However, something tells me that both of these marketing techniques work and give a pretty decent ROI. 

Are any 'serious' company using this marketing approach?  Should they? The jury (me) is out. How about you?

What’s Steve Jobs Thinking? There’s a 75% chance this is it

So, the answer to my previous post has been attempted to get answered by Piper Jaffray:

http://www.appleinsider.com/article.php?id=1719

WEB 2.0 Hype, Hope and Unbridled Enthusiasm

One of the most frustrating things about working in an interactive agency is all the hype you have to sort through and explain to clients and prospects. They tear out pages from Wired magazine or send us a link to some article about a new technology that will solve everything, including world hunger.

“Why don’t we have this – why aren’t we doing this. I want my Web 2.0!”

I did say frustrating, but don’t get me wrong; it’s not something I’d rather do without!

It’s the price to pay for progress. In fact, I’m thrilled about the Web 2.0 hype – first of all because it is not all hype – but most of all because people are energized. Marketers are looking to the web for solutions, looking to dotcom agencies for reach and ROI.

It has really taken us quite some time to recover from the burst of the dotcom bubble. Not until the last couple of years has the web started to get its edge back; financially, in terms high-profile innovation and investments, ad spend and the impact on our lives in general. Dotcom is no longer a swearword.

There will be another shakeout, like in any maturing market. I don’t necessarily think the industry as a whole got it ‘right’ this time either. But smart companies are making new mistakes, not old ones. That’s what’s cool and that’s why Web 2.0 is more than new technology – it’s also new hope and energy.

Office Politics, Fortune 500 Style

Books have been written about it, lectures have been held and mentors have offered their hard earned lessons. Yet few have presented counter-office-politics strategies as succinctly as on Slacker Manager's blog. Great advice and tips for anybody who work with other people. Read it.

Warning: Following most of these tips may limit your career options in corporate America. During my time as a VP of marketing for one of the largest US banks I quickly realized that not playing the politics game made me a threat. Especially to a self-sustaining group of mediocre middle-managers who only wanted to secure their pensions, not the interest of their employer. Then, where would the US economy be without this group of yes-men soldiers! At least I confirmed that guerilla-style business management is more my cup of tea