How best to use eBay blogs, or... what NOT to do

"Blog-land" is what some eBayer's call it. It is where you go when you click into "Blogs" under the community link. Some, err, correction, LOTS of folks just cruise the blogs and read because they show up there in order of arrival. The most recent blog appears at the top.
This can be a fun exercise or a good way to kill some time. Some folks cruise and leave comments on the posts as they read. That is fine. Linking is good.
However, the mistakes are made by those who post silly things like "goodnight bloggers" in a blog post. This is space wasted. Believe it or not, eBay blogs are picked up by google. How awesome would it be for someone to be looking for a specific item that is sold out everywhere and they keep searching and searching. At some point they come across a blog post that you did six months ago, back when you had that item in stock. So, you no longer have it but.... now you've gotten eyes off the world wide web and into your eBay store. Your merchandise is interesting enough to keep their attention right?
So, why the heck would anyone ever search for "good night bloggers"? Don't waste your space.

Freebies, freebies... if they offer it, you should take it

Ok, so you've heard my rants about credit card companies before, but today I am loving American Express. I just booked my flight for eBay live and it was completely paid for by shipping costs from my eBay sales.

My customers give me the money to ship their items and I pass the money on to the USPS but I run it through Amex first. I've put nothing out. All I have to do is keep good records and make sure to pay my bill on time.

I'm loving Amex even more today because they "loaned" me the point that I was short.

I never knew that you could do that.

I found the flight I need on Delta and in order to purchase a flight from Delta with my Amex points I first had to transfer Amex points to Delta SkyMiles. The flight I wanted was 50,000 points. I had 49,685!

I talked to a Delta rep and they told me that I could buy SkyMiles but they are only sold in increments of 2,000 for around sixty bucks. Ok, so, $60 from south Florida to Chicago isn't bad. I was trying to figure out the math of how many points I needed to transfer into miles and the Amex rep made my day by saying "oh, don't buy points, we'll loan them to you"

huh?

really?

you can do that?

yep. She said I was eligible to "borrow" up to 15,000 points. So, my flight was free (except for the taxes.... nothing is ever completely free)
And, another cool thing is that I'm staying with my cousin who has enough hotel reward points to cover our room. Yippeeeeeee.
eBay Live, here I come!

Money making eBay to-go is back.. if you haven't you should

Awhile back I did a post on the advantages of using tools like eBay to go. Then a couple weeks later I did a post on affiliate links. Well, at the time that I did it eBay had an eBay to-go tool that allowed you to include your affiliate link so you were able to use them together. But, recently eBay switched their affiliate service from a private company to in-house and for over a month we were without eBay to go with affiliate links. Well..... it is back!
Yay.
It is a widget so you can get paid by eBay to bring people to YOUR listings. I've written in more detail in those two other blogs but the quick version goes like this:
1. Sign up to eBay Partner Network
2. Create an eBay to go widget & post it wherever you like that will allow the script.
3. you are promoting your stuff and eBay will give you a cut of the FVFs if someone buys

I have mine on myspace and I create them for my consignment customers to put their items up on their myspace pages too.

If you don't want to be an affiliate you can still use the tool, you just won't be paid for it. The regular eBay to go can also be posted in the eBay blogs (can't use the affilate one there)

In my quest for top notch customer service. . .

Because I've finally updated and streamlined my shipping processes (future post... stay tuned) and automated a few of the tedious tasks in my daily eBay "chores" I've been able to make time to start searching the rest of the web outside of eBay. I'm doing this with a purpose though. I had realized the other day that the only sites I'd visited in the last few months were the ones that I use daily. This can't be good for business.
Back when I was a bartender I worked for a guy one time that spent quite a bit of time bar hopping. "Market research" he would say. Some people may call him an alcoholic. But, he was also a very successful business man. It wasn't just the competition he was looking at either. It was the entire industry.
Being an eBay seller I need to look at more than just eBay. Sure, I am very familiar with my competition on eBay and frequently look at other listings outside of my niche, but what about the rest of the web?
So, I've been spending time looking at all sorts of websites. I've been looking at how many products they carry, what their policies are, terms, etc. etc.
I found a site that pretty much perfected the customer service end of selling on the internet. LApolicegear.com has about a million products to offer but the thing that impressed me most was the fact that they put the customer at the forefront of their policies. They have written things in such a way that it makes the shopper feel like they are being met at the door by a dedicated staff member and walked through the process of buying.
When I saw the site I immediately thought of my dad who is a total gun enthusiast. They have all sorts of gun holsters and things that my dad would love. Along with gun holsters, they sell boots, tactical gear, under armor, flashlights, and all sorts of neat gadgets and things. I even found a pair of pants that were on sale for only $2.99!!
One would imagine that they are only for cops or government agencies but they are not. They definitely do sell to the government, but they sell to the public too.

*Sponsored post*

Who is this woman and why is she so awesome? She is an eBay sellers' html savior

Tonight I decided to update my cousin's about me page (she is also my boss so it is considered work) and I got all carried away updating me pages, my world pages and blogs. Now, after hours of working I've done ZERO listings. I feel great about it though because I think it is important to keep those things up to date.

There are some eBay folks who say that they never check me pages or that they think they aren't necessary. I disagree. I think me pages may not be important to everyone, but they are very important to some. So, if you are a seller, you should definately have one for those buyers who DO care. The ones that don't won't click on it anyway so you aren't hurting them by having it.

So, tonight my best friend is a woman whom I've never met and don't know anything about other than she is an html gift from god. Her eBay id is Shipscript and has a feedback of only 8 but that is not stopping her from knowing everything about making auctions look perfect.

AND...

she does it all for free! Well, I'm sure that there has got to be something that she charges for or some way that she makes money becuause she has about a million tools for just about anything eBay that you need.

I have used her WYSIWYG online editor for years and have played around with some of her other tools in the past but never really dug into all that she offers. Tonight I went nuts. I was playing with all sorts of tools she offers and still haven't seen it all.

I fixed up my eBay blog in about 5 minutes flat thanks to her eBay blog tool and decided that I needed to blog about her here.

Check out her about me page. There are links to everything there now but with eBay's new 'no links whatsoever' rule coming in July who knows where it will all go so bookmark the tools you like.

Improving my blog so I don't waste YOUR time!

I've been working to try and improve my blogging because I really want to be able to have a worthwhile place that people come back and visit. I'm spending my time doing this, so it would be great to have people actually reading it. And, of course, more importantly, getting something from it. Wether it be a tip that they can use to improve their eBay biz, or just a smile. I feel like as long as I keep giving people a reason to read, their time (and mine) will be well spent.
I know that many eBayers are also bloggers so I thought I would share a great blog post that I just ran across. I don't know much about this blogger but the post is excellent.
Check it out: 12 Traits of Successful Bloggers
Enjoy.

I'm gettin' paid to blog! Yay! I'm so excited about this new opportunity.

Ok, so, I'm an eBay junkie and am always on the hunt for something to sell on eBay. A better, faster way to post my listings. And on and on. eBay, eBay, eBay. That is how you found this blog right? You probably either typed in something relating to eBay in a search engine or clicked here through a link I've posted on an eBay board or something right?
Well, as much as I truly LOVE eBay, the whole reason for what I do is to make money. Duh. I have built my e-business so that I am able to stay at home with my baby. I could probably make a little more doing something else, but there is no amount of money in the world that I would take to miss out on the time I have with my family right now. No way.
That said, I'm going to use a quote I stole from my good friend Dickson and say "I'm coin operated". I respond very well to money. So, the other day when I was listening to a blog talk radio program about eBay the guest talked more about blogging than she did about eBay. I totally related to her about how blogging was therapeutic to her and that she absolutely loved spending her time blogging. I feel that way too.
I started my first blog, my personal blog, when I was pregnant so that I could write about what I was going through with the pregnancy and be able to post pictures of my growing belly. I got hooked. I've now been blogging for years and it is the main way for my friends and family to keep up with what is going on in my life. I don't email pictures to people, I post them on my blog. If I don't put up a post for awhile than I get calls and emails asking if I'm ok!
So, it seemed only the logical thing to do, to start blogging about my work passion, eBay. It has been so useful to me on so many levels. One, I make a little bit of residual money from people clicking on links. Not much, but it is worth the time it took to put them there. Two, I don't have to go over the same things over and over in emails to people. And three, it makes me feel good to be able to help people.
I am an Education Specialist and many times eBayers find me in the database and will contact me with questions about this or that. Most times I am able to dig up a blog post that I wrote on the subject and send them a link rather than writing that advice over and over.
Lazy? Maybe. Or, one might call it efficient!
So, back to the radio program. This woman was going on and on about her different blogs and she mentioned that she uses a service that pays her to blog. What? Really? I jumped online right away to look up her blog. The thought of actually being paid for what I love to do anyway definitely got my attention. The website she talked about is payperpost.
I clicked through her link and signed up right away. I've spent a good amount of time reading around their website and checking out opportunities they have to offer, but I still have a little more to learn in order to be successful at this.
You see, I don't want to be a complete sell out and just write what I'm told. I have no intention of doing that. This is my blog and I'm adamant about keeping control over the content I put here. So, I made sure that is something that I would be able to do at the same time getting my greedy little paws on some sweet mula. From what I've seen so far, I will be able to do just that. I'm being paid to write this one and any post that I'm paid for will have notice of that.
Money will get me to act. Won't get me to change my opinions or say something that I don't believe, but it will get me typing.
And of course, I've added a link over on the right side for you to check it out if you are interested too.