May 12th, 2008
But what does it really mean? Will eBay’s future success or failure be measured in pageviews?
Ina Steiner has attempted some analysis at Auctionbytes;
“I was curious if the numbers might hint at any boycott effect. Looking at the numbers month-to-month, it shows a 13.21 percent drop in page views from January 2008 to February, and a 6.48 percent increase from February to March. There was also a 10.85 percent drop in time spent per person from January 2008 to February. It’s always tricky looking at month-to-month numbers, as seasonal effects can cause swings.”
Once again, the action is really in the comments!
This is simply my own personal thoughts - I think eBay’s future success or failure will be measured by their arrogance and sad attempts at PR spin… but those are other posts to come…
Tags: AuctionBytes, eBay, eBay policies, eBay Sellers, feedback By Mark -- 0 comments
May 9th, 2008
Don’t let the lack of MSM coverage delude you into thinking that the preznits isn’t still insisting on gaining the telcos immunity for their illegal spying activities at the behest of the US government!
From the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation);
Ominous Signs of a Forthcoming “Compromise” on Telco Immunity - Tell the House To Stand Firm
“This morning, CongressDaily reported that Senator Jay Rockefeller is now privately circulating a new ‘compromise’ proposal on surveillance legislation, only a day after it was reported that the telecoms themselves have begun shopping their own ‘compromise’ proposals around the Hill. You may remember Sen. Rockefeller as the force behind the surveillance bill passed by the Senate in February, which included blanket retroactive immunity for phone companies like AT&T that are alleged to have participated in the National Security Agency’s illegal warrantless wiretapping program.”
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Tags: Domestic Military Operation, Fourth Amendment Violation, Impeachment, President Bush, Telco Immunity By Mark -- 0 comments
May 8th, 2008
If you hadn’t noticed, Clickbank has redone their return policy for defective products. Log-in to your account and read the news…
Quote;
Return Policy: Extended Timeframe
2008-05-07
“We are making a minor change to our posted return policy effective May 20, 2008. The stated return policy on our web site will change from 8 weeks (56 days) to 60 days. The updated return policy will read as follows:
‘ClickBank will, at its discretion, allow for the return or replacement of any defective product within 60 days from the date of purchase. For recurring billing products, returns for more than one payment may be provided if requested within the standard 60 day return period. After 60 days all sales are final.’
If you want to keep the 8 week return policy wording on your website, you may do so. Please note, however, that we will honor return requests made within 60 days. If you want to post the exact policy that we will have on our order form and web site, you will want to make those changes on May 20th.”
Thoughts?
Tags: CB 60 Day Return Policy, Clickbank, Clickbank Policy Change, Clickbank Return Policy By Mark -- 0 comments
May 8th, 2008
It was attempted on me when I first got mine… sorry $%#&^%$#’s!
H/T to IAB SmartBrief;
FTC on Watch Against Wireless Ripoffs
“An FTC commissioner warned cellphone content providers they need to do a better job of disclosing the costs consumers incur when clicking or downloading services for their mobile devices.
Speaking yesterday at the start of a two-day Federal Trade Commission forum on mobile devices, the commissioner, Jonathan Leibowitz, said the FTC intends to step in to take enforcement action against deceptive or unfair content offers.”
Sure… once again, we’ll be expecting to trust who?
“Marketers, analysts and media companies told the workshop that the mobile market is finally becoming a platform for commercial services, after a long delay, but the lack of research on what works still makes mobile’s effectiveness somewhat uncertain. They urged the FTC not to take action to regulate the developing market before problems emerged.”
I wouldn’t believe that anything is truly uncertain to these folks. Lack of research? Right…
Tags: Cellphone Content Providers, FTC, Phony Mobile Advertising, Wireless Ripoffs By Mark -- 0 comments
May 7th, 2008
A special gift for you, simply because you’re a valued subscriber of mine!
Bonus Lifetime Gold Access to Resell Rights Mastery ($197 Value)
If you love the idea of making money with Resell Rights products or building content rich sites and Info Products with Private Label content, I trust you will enjoy this.
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Tags: Edmund Loh, Resell Rights, Resell Rights Mastery, Resell Rights Mastery Gold Access By Mark -- 0 comments
May 7th, 2008
No doubt invaluable information for those who want to maintain an informative, active and successful online forum. I’m going to “cherry-pick” some points I like and direct you to click through to Patrick’s article for the rest. It’s an easy read…
Develop Effective Forum Leadership
by Patrick O’Keefe, Sitepoint Advisor
Attitudes…
“Generally, the best way to build your staff is to pull people from your active member base. You should seek out the members who set the best example for others to follow, in line with your guidelines — not the members who simply post a lot. You want your moderators to be visible within your forums, but you also want them to have the right attitude and the ability to work in a team environment. These people’s characters, their personalities, and their attitudes are the most important considerations, above all else.”
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Tags: Effective Forums, Forum Leadership, Patrick O'Keefe, Sitepoint, Successful Forums By Mark -- 2 comments
May 5th, 2008
They are so incredibly brazen they throw the FCC’s rules back in their face upside down!
Despite the rules governing the 700 Mhz auction, Verizon has arrogantly decided that they are somehow not required to participate. Well, hell, that’s exactly what one ought to expect when there is a lawless administration, but that’s another story…
Google Accuses Verizon of Planning to Dodge 700 MHz Open Access Rules
Verizon has taken the public position that it may exclude its handsets from the open access condition. Verizon believes it may force customers who want to access the open platform using a device not purchased from Verizon to go through “Door No. 1,” while allowing customers who obtain their device from Verizon access through “Door No. 2.”
“When the FCC announced the open access requirements, Verizon asked the the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit to find those conditions unlawful and only withdrew its appeal after that court denied Verizon’s request for an expedited review and after the wireless industry’s trade association, CTIA, filed a similar appeal”
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Tags: 700-MHz-auction, broadband-competition, Google-Bids-On-Spectrum, Open-Access, telco-spin By Mark -- 3 comments
May 5th, 2008
Somehow I sense that this eBay Buy.com partnership is going to ascend from a slow burn to a grave and unquenchable combustion…
And the comments are definitely where the action is!
This is simply one man’s opinion - I’ve seen it said by some of the eBay higher-ups that the folks who have generated these discussions are in the minority, making every effort to minimize the impact of their talk. Obviously the “Big Boys” now running eBay don’t actually have the experience they say they do. Why? It has been a long-standing principle in retail that if you piss off one person he’ll tell five more who will in turn tell five more and eventually create a chain of pissed off folks leaving you at the end of a real mess. Your abilities to put out this fire leave a lot to be desired in addition to your senseless lack of transparency!
Even worse is to leave a comment to a crying, pained, hurt individual, most arrogantly, that you’re sorry to see her go while obviously, condescendingly, speaking out of the side of your face! Usher! Now, that is truly very very bad PR…
Hurt people have extremely long memories. But I guess they’re simply not worth counting, are they?
Tags: Buy.com partnership, eBay, eBay policies, eBay retail movement, eBay Sellers By Mark -- 0 comments
May 3rd, 2008
And I’m sure it confirms what many sellers were thinking…
eBay partners with Buy.com
“eBay has entered into a partnership with Buy.com that will see them move all of Buy.com’s new and in-season inventory onto their eBay store in the coming weeks. Terms of the deal are not being disclosed publicly but the messages I’m hearing echo recent themes coming out of eBay presentations focusing on a better buyer experience and moving toward a more retail-like experience. eBay spokesperson, Usher Lieberman, provided Randy and I with the following:”
“eBay is aggressively using price as a lever to improve the value and selection on eBay.com. Consistent with our goals, we have entered into a partnership with Buy.com to bring their new-in-season merchandise onto eBay.com. We expect to learn a great deal from this partnership and we will build upon the results.”
Themes coming out of eBay presentations? Moving towards a more retail-like experience? Wow eBay… I don’t think your sellers can mistake that message! Adding to it that now you’re joining forces with a very large retail operation? I think Ray Charles could see what you’re doing. Consistent with whose goals?
It’s certainly not about a “few disenchanted, sour-grapes sellers” or feedback manipulation, now, is it? Good God- that spin is as bad as any political hogwash.
Tags: Buy.com partnership, eBay, eBay policies, eBay retail movement, eBay Sellers By Mark -- 1 comment
May 2nd, 2008
It has been suggested that I attempt a bit of a different focus at Workboxers by those who think I can do better… could they be right? Well, heck yeah!
I want to pass this on to you because it comes from a marketer that I respect. Yes, there is an affiliate link included. I’ll give you a choice.
Many of you know about eBay. I’ve written a bit about it lately. Did you know eBay has an affiliate program? Well, what I’m about to introduce to you is designed to help you take full advantage of eBay’s affiliate program (eBay Partner Network) and make good money online. Okay?
phpbay Pro
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Tags: eBay affiliate program, eBay affiliate software, making-money-online, phpbay Pro By Mark -- 0 comments
May 1st, 2008
We all know that eBay has ended the digital download, except that you can sell your digitally downloaded items in their classifieds… for $9.99/month.
Check these out and then use your imagination (all quotes from the article);
EBay makes public its complaint against Craigslist
- “Craigslist considers eBay’s new site Kijiji a competitive activity that nullifies some shareholder rights eBay won when it bought a 28 percent stake in Craigslist in 2004, according to the complaint, which eBay made public on Wednesday.”
- “eBay contends Craigslist went too far in interpreting what rights eBay should lose. And it’s suing Craigslist for allegedly diluting its stake unfairly.”
- “Craigslist said Wednesday in a blog posting on its site that eBay is intent on dominating the classifieds business.”
- “EBay’s lust for acquiring the rest of Craigslist is blatant throughout the complaint. EBay says industry analysts believe the online classifieds site is worth several billion dollars, and in July, former eBay CEO Meg Whitman told Craigslist she’d ‘welcome the opportunity to acquire the remainder of (it).’”
How many Craigslists are there? Is it an anomaly? Honestly, how many of you know anything about Kijiji? Then - how many of you have been around long enough to know how diluted and powerless classifieds have become online? Ah - the good old days :) Craigslist truly would have been a powerhouse in the late 90’s!
Tags: Craigslist, Digital Download Ban, eBay, eBay Sues Craigslist, Kijiji By Mark -- 0 comments
April 30th, 2008
I love stumbling on worthwhile information :)
SEO Code of Ethics - “Do No Harm”
A synopsis;
Whereas all parties are working towards presenting relevant and high quality information in an easy to use format to information seekers, and whereas SEO practitioners are being contracted to assist clients in obtaining higher rankings for client pages, we (and those linking to this page) are voluntarily adhering to the below SEO Code of Ethics:
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Tags: Bruce Clay, Search Engine Optimization, SEO, SEO Code Of Ethics By Mark -- 0 comments
April 29th, 2008
And I found our CEO hanging out there! :)
New Forum: How To Buy and Sell A Web Site at Sitepoint which Shayne Tilley calls “a dedicated place on the SitePoint forums for people to share their own experiences in buying and selling websites.”
The first thread is a sticky from catweasel, “Advice For Buyers” and offers some helpful advice, including;
Google is your friend
- Make liberal use of google. If the site has a 1800 number google it, maybe there are duplicates.
- Select a bunch of text from the site and google it to check for unique content.
- Google the sellers name and email address.
- Google the site name plus the word ’scam’ to see if the site has a bad reputation.
- Google info:www.<thesitename>.com to gain further information such as inbound links, number of indexed pages etc.
And much more…
Look who I found hangin’ out here - where does he find the time?
Tags: Buying Web Sites, Help Buying Selling Web Sites, Jeremy Wright, Selling Web Sites, Sitepoint Forums By Mark -- 0 comments
April 29th, 2008
I’m happy to say that our list of job boards is increasing by another one…
From the ClickZ News Blog;
“ClickZ Job Board: Start Your Hunt Here
Looking for an Internet marketing job? Newly posted openings on the ClickZ Job Board include online program director, senior art director, Web designer, natural search consultant, e-mail marketing manager, and others.
The Craigslist Foundation, Yahoo, Agency.com, and Wal-Mart are among the companies seeking talent.”
Good Luck!
Tags: ClickZ Job Board, Internet Marketing Jobs, Job Board, Job Thread By Mark -- 0 comments
April 28th, 2008
Because I’ve seen folks concerned about code in your page affecting Google PR. From the W3C…
The Markup Validator is a free service by W3C that helps check the validity of Web documents.
Most Web documents are written using markup languages, such as HTML or XHTML. These languages are defined by technical specifications, which usually include a machine-readable formal grammar (and vocabulary). The act of checking a document against these constraints is called validation, and this is what the Markup Validator does.
Validating Web documents is an important step which can dramatically help improving and ensuring their quality, and it can save a lot of time and money. Validation is, however, neither a full quality check, nor is it strictly equivalent to checking for conformance to the specification.
This validator can process documents written in most markup languages. Supported document types include the HTML (through HTML 4.01) and XHTML (1.0 and 1.1) family, MathML, SMIL and SVG (1.0 and 1.1, including the mobile profiles). The Markup Validator can also validate Web documents written with an SGML or XML DTD, provided they use a proper document type declaration.
HTH
Tags: Google PR, Markup Validator, W3C, Web Document Validity By Mark -- 0 comments
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