April 7, 2008
I am pleased to announce that my presentation of "Build Your Business on eBay", targeted specifically towards small business owners and entrepreneurs, has been added to the Small Business Month offerings by both the Kitchener Public Library and the Burlington Public Library. In keeping with the mandates of both libraries, these presentations are offered on a no-charge basis but do require pre-registration.

In addition, both libraries will also be offering a new introduction to buying on eBay tutorial that I have created entitled "Even Santa Does His Shopping on eBay". This one hour presentation is ideally suited for people new to eBay and is also offered on a no-charge basis. All of the above will be offered during the month of October 2008. Please see my class schedule for times, locations and registration information.

March 30 , 2008
In a move that was, in my opinion, long overdue, eBay has finally reigned in the explosion of digital downloads available on the site. Effective March 31st, all goods that can be digitally downloaded or transferred electronically must be listed using the Classified Ads format. This effectively will eliminate many of the digital e-books that had virtually no value - either monetarily or substantively.

For those sellers that really have something of value to sell, using the Classified Ads format offers a thirty day listing that generates leads as opposed to sales. While Classified Ad listings are much more expensive on the surface, there is no backend cost to the seller when they make a sale. Additionally, eBay now gets out of the business of protecting buyers and sellers who complete transactions for these items. This is a smart move on eBay's part as the number of buyer complaints over the quality of many of these e-books is what really pushed eBay to make this policy change.

February 24, 2008
The annual eBay strike/boycott was announced by ringleaders upset at announced fee and feedback changes on the site for the week of Febraury 18th to 24th, 2008.

Just to set the record straight, it appears that serious sellers on the site ignored the action. Auction counts appear to be virtually unchanged and for most it was business as usual. In fact, eBay apparently felt so little impact that they did not even feel the need to offer a fee promotion to bump up their numbers.

The absurdity is that this strike/boycott is rolled out by a few every time eBay announces fee changes and has always resulted in the same mediocrity of success. Hopefully they have learned that they can effect change better from within from the wilderness.

February 14, 2008
With all of the changes to the fee structure, feedback and search engine announced on January 29th, it became rapidly apparant that a summary was required to ensure nothing was missed and to allow sellers to make adjustments in a timely manner.

For this reason I am making a "cheat sheet" available for anyone that can use it. Although it was originally assembled for use by American sellers on the eBay.com site, it is still functional for Canadian sellers. For instance, the changes in the fee structure have now brought Canadian insertion and feature fees in line at par with our American counterparts. Further, implementation dates for all changes are the same on either side of the border.

You can view the pdf file with Adobe Acrobat by clicking here.

January 23, 2008
The rumours that had been flying for the past few days were laid to rest today - after a ten year stint as the CEO, Meg Whitman is moving on.

When she joined the company in 1998 it was a US-only auction-based trading site with 500,000 users, 30 employees and a mere 4.7 million dollars in revenue.

Today eBay has more than 248 million registered users, more than 15,000 employees and nearly 7.7 billion dollars in revenue.

"With humor, smarts and unflappable determination, Meg took a small, barely known online auction site and helped it become an integral part of our lives," said eBay founder and chairman, Pierre Omidyar when making it official during the company's Q4 financial announcement from San Jose, CA.

January 23, 2008
eBay's incoming CEO has promised "aggressive" changes in the coming months as he looks to quickly make his own mark on the company's fortunes.

John Donahoe has been named Meg Whitman's successor and has been with the company since 2005 as the president of the eBay MarketPlaces unit. Rajiv Dutta, currently president of PayPal, will move over to assume his vacated role.

Amongst the first changes promised are adjustments to the fees structure. The scuttle is that eBay will drastically reduce insertion fees but hike final value fees to move closer to the Amazon model that is so successful. There will also likely be a significant change to the cost of gallery photos (maybe FREE!).

Other promised changes include improvements to speed, convenience, and reliability. More next week!

January 21, 2008
The Wall Street Journal is reporting today that, long-time eBay CEO, Meg Whitman, is preparing to pack up her cubicle.

Meg has been at the helm of eBay for almost ten years and the suggestion is that she wants to time her retirement with that anniversary. Her rumoured successor is eBay's president of the Auction Business Unit, John Donahoe who has been with the company since 2005.

While eBay won't comment on the story, where there is smoke there is frequently fire. Many have suggested it is time for new leadership as the company moves forward. There are also strong rumours that eBay will do some tinkering with it's fee structure in the very near future - specifically dropping initial insertion fees in favour of increased final vale fees. More to follow!

January 21, 2008
eBay has been promising, for some time, a better "finding" experience on the site for buyers. Toward that end, "Best Match" is being Beta tested by eBay in the USA.

Little is being said by the company about how the system actually works but many search engine gurus have suggested that it will use a simple algorithm to determine the order in which listings will be shown in search results. If this is the case, sellers will be able to "optimize" their listings so that their listings will appear higher in the search results.

If this speculation proves true, it will become critical that all eBay sellers work toward understanding how the engine will sort results and ensure that their listings meet the search criteria to give them the best possible placing in those results. Maintaining the level playing field may become a whole lot more difficult in the not so distant future. Keep watching.

January 14, 2008
It may seem like it's a bit early to be mentioning this but the opening of eBay Live! registration is just around the corner beginning March 15th. If you have ever thought about attending eBay's biggest party each year, the convention is situated in Chicago this year making it a reasonable expense if you are in Ontario and are thinking of driving.

Of course, Chicago hotels are far from inexpensive with some of the rooms close to the convention site averaging US$400 a night. All the more reason to make your plans early to snap up the few reasonably priced rooms close at hand.

For more info on attending this years conference, I advise joining the eBay Group **Going to Ebay Live 2008 Chicago** where you can communicate with many others planning to attend. There are many helpful posts including where the best deals on hotel accommodations are. Hope to see you there!

January 14, 2008
Well, it's that time of year again. Canada Post has released it's annual rate increases. About the only positive is that the cost of mailing a letter won't change.

eBay sellers won't get off that easy. Announced were increases to small packet rates to the USA and new zone based rates for International small packets.

For the most part, most rates have increased in the 4 to 5 percent range. Fuel surcharges will still apply to Expedited rates within Canada and to the USA. In case you have never checked, Canada Post rates can be found here.

Now, more than ever, it is important to take advantage of shipping discounts wherever possible. If you haven't already, sign up for Canada Post's Venture One program or, to secure the same discount and more, start to use the eBay and PayPal shipping feature which allows home office printing of labels and postage. Savings can be as much as 8% over counter prices.

January 2, 2008
The Canadianized version of "eBay for Dummies" is now available.

Get great safe-shopping secrets, find out how to sell what people are buying, ship stuff the right way, bag auction bargains, deal with problem transactions like a pro, and more. Look for it to be available in your local bookstore or directly from the co-author late in the year. Visit here for more details about the book's contents or to purchase a signed, personalized copy.

As part of the publicity campaign to launch the availability of the book, a series of radio and television interviews with yours truly are planned in December 2007and February/March, 2008. Many of these interviews will be posted to my Media page as they are available.

January 2, 2008
A great source of help can be the ongoing workshops offered on eBay. Name an eBay associated topic and, sooner or later, it will likely have a workshop devoted to it. Many of these workshops are hosted by eBay staffers with the assistance of recognized user experts.

For instance, January 14th a Listing Template Design & Layout Clinic will be conducted by Debbie Levitt of eBay Certified Provider AsWas.com and on January 15th Lisa Suttora of eBay Certified Provider WhatDoISell.com will conduct a workshop on the top 8 Product Trends for 2008 and how to apply theses trends to your eBay online business. Both workshops will be archived for later access for those who cannot attend on the day they are offered.

You can be pre-advised of upcoming eBay workshops or find the archives by visiting the Workshop Calendar.