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Digg it UP - Avoiding eBay Fees, Stealing Photos, Shill Bidding & Keyword Spamming
Something that results in your most important outside audiences doing what you need them to do should not be warming the bench.But that’s exactly what’s happening at organizations that allow their public relations people to play games with tactics like newsletters, press releases and brochures instead of aggressively pursuing the major benefits PR can provide.If this describes your public relations program, why not give real PR a chance, especially since you’re already paying for it?Tell your public relations counsel you want to see the plan for how s/he will take advantage of the fact that people act on their own perception of the facts before them leading to predictable behaviors about which something can be done.Ask her/him how aggressively s/he will create, change or reinforce those perceptions by reaching, persuading and moving-to-actions- you-desire those important external audience members whose behaviors really affect your organization?That’s the fundamental premise of public relations and you should be getting your share of that action.Fact is, this sequence can help you alter the perceptions, and thus behaviors of your most important external target audiences making achievement of your business objectives much easier.This is good news for managers like you because, when the behavioral changes be
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Sh
Let's look at what makes a retailer profits.It's just a few main things... 1. Number of stock turns in a year 2. Gross Margin or pricing strategy 3. How many staff you have working relative to turnover 4. Rent proportional to turnover or revenue 5. Conversion rate of walk in traffic to purchasesLet's investigate all 5.Stock turns per year, from years of working with retailers, is something a lot of the shop keepers don't know. Work it out if you don't know by looking at how many times the cost price of your stock divides into your turnover in 12 months.e.g. If your stock was valued at $50,000 and you turned over $150,000 your number of stock turns would be 3. If your gross margin was 50% you would make $150,000 gross profit as well.Stock turns gives you profit, so therefore the more stock turns you do the greater the profit, this is important for you to remember.In retail you want as many stock turns as possible. But what affects stock turns is what we need to look at.Stock turns is affected by price and conversion rate (or selling skills). If your prices are much higher than your competitors this may (but not necessarily) affect your sales and hence stock turns.Conversion rates play a massive role in making profit. If you get 20 people a day walk into your shop but only 2 buy you w
There are many ways you can become a top seller on eBay. The purpose of this eBay article is to teach you one of the lesser known strategies. This eBay article focuses on how you can compete, and win, in the eBay marketplace by learning, understanding and applying some of eBay’s policies – and using them to your advantage. Your goal, if you are going make money on eBay, is to be a top performer in your product niche, and this eBay article will show you how you can achieve that.
First, you must be aware of eBay’s policies. Second, you need to insure that you do not violate these policies. And third, you must monitor your competition to insure that they too are not violating eBay’s policies.
Have you ever heard the expression “knowledge is power”? eBay has established itself a level playing field. Everyone plays, supposedly, by the same rules. Of course, this supposes that everyone playing the game actually knows the rules. Like in most marketplaces, there are penalties - some sever - if such rules are broken. You must use this to your advantage.
1. Fee avoidance
eBay generates a significant portion of their profits from “final value fees”. As a result, many of eBay’s policies revolved around this specific violation. “Fee avoidance”, or the act of “circumventing eBay fees” can occur in many ways. Here is just a partial list of practices that might be considered a violation of this policy:
You can not: end an auction early in order to sell a bidder the item directly and cut eBay out of the deal
You can not: end a reserve-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the reserve
You can not: end a no-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the minimum you hope to get for the item
You can not: encourage bidders to contact you directly to purchase the item off eBay
You can not: require the buyer who wins the auction to buy something else. For example, a certificate for cheap airfare that requires the buyer to pay for three nights in a specific hotel.
You can not: give the buyer a choice at the end of the auction. For example, if you have a blue tie and a red tie for sale, they should be listed as two separate auctions – not one auction with a “choice” at the end of the transaction
You can not: include a static or clickable link to a non-eBay website
In most situations, it’s the bidder who reports to eBay that fee avoidance is occurring or has occurred. However, as a savvy seller it is your obligation to report to eBay these violations made by your competitors. Many times a new seller to eBay doesn't know they are breaking policies - and certainly doesn't know what to do once they receive a warning from eBay. From time to time you'll see people cease to be a competitor because they often quit selling on eBay out of frustration. Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension or permanent suspension.
2. Stealing Photos
One of my students recently spent thousands of dollars on professional photos for their products, only to find their photos “stolen” and placed on that competitors eBay listings.
It’s not easy to take great photos – and it’s tempting for people who see a perfect photo to “right click”, save the photo to their desktop and upload the photo as their own. This occurs a lot – and is mostly done by new sellers on eBay who don’t understand that your photos are not part of the public domain for their own use.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Shi
What motivates the people who visit any website to buy?This is the one question that every Internet Marketer is seeking the answer to. If you know how to motivate people to buy, then you can increase your sales and your conversion rate. And wouldn’t that be good for your profit and your business?So what motivates people to buy?It is often said that you should give people what the need, because that is what they are going to buy. That may well have been the case once but sadly today society has changed and people no longer buy what they need.Instead they buy what they want and what they crave – hence people struggling to put food on the table, but have a 42” plasma TV, satellite system and a bottle of Jack Daniels!You need to pitch your product not as something they need, but as something they absolutely must have; make it so they crave your product and absolutely must get their hands on it.People also buy because they want to get pleasure from what they buy. Someone doesn’t walk into a car dealership and buy a top of the range Mercedes because they need it; a Skoda or Toyota would have done the job just as well.They buy the Mercedes because they want the pleasure that goes with it. Whether this is the comfort of the car, the joy of all the gadgets, or the fact that it is a status symbol – they drive
Have you ever heard the expression “knowledge is power”? eBay has established itself a level playing field. Everyone plays, supposedly, by the same rules. Of course, this supposes that everyone playing the game actually knows the rules. Like in most marketplaces, there are penalties - some sever - if such rules are broken. You must use this to your advantage.
1. Fee avoidance
eBay generates a significant portion of their profits from “final value fees”. As a result, many of eBay’s policies revolved around this specific violation. “Fee avoidance”, or the act of “circumventing eBay fees” can occur in many ways. Here is just a partial list of practices that might be considered a violation of this policy:
You can not: end an auction early in order to sell a bidder the item directly and cut eBay out of the deal
You can not: end a reserve-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the reserve
You can not: end a no-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the minimum you hope to get for the item
You can not: encourage bidders to contact you directly to purchase the item off eBay
You can not: require the buyer who wins the auction to buy something else. For example, a certificate for cheap airfare that requires the buyer to pay for three nights in a specific hotel.
You can not: give the buyer a choice at the end of the auction. For example, if you have a blue tie and a red tie for sale, they should be listed as two separate auctions – not one auction with a “choice” at the end of the transaction
You can not: include a static or clickable link to a non-eBay website
In most situations, it’s the bidder who reports to eBay that fee avoidance is occurring or has occurred. However, as a savvy seller it is your obligation to report to eBay these violations made by your competitors. Many times a new seller to eBay doesn't know they are breaking policies - and certainly doesn't know what to do once they receive a warning from eBay. From time to time you'll see people cease to be a competitor because they often quit selling on eBay out of frustration. Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension or permanent suspension.
2. Stealing Photos
One of my students recently spent thousands of dollars on professional photos for their products, only to find their photos “stolen” and placed on that competitors eBay listings.
It’s not easy to take great photos – and it’s tempting for people who see a perfect photo to “right click”, save the photo to their desktop and upload the photo as their own. This occurs a lot – and is mostly done by new sellers on eBay who don’t understand that your photos are not part of the public domain for their own use.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Sh
The Federal Trade Commission enforces franchise company disclosure rules. They have developed a policy for the uniform franchise disclosure laws. The UFOC contains massive amounts of disclosure and often is 200 pages, most of which no one ever reads. It also contains all the franchisor’s present franchisee’s phone numbers. The potential franchise buyers want to call all the current franchisees and want to talk. Well many of these franchisees do not want people calling them. They do not want their privacy violated as it is and now the FTC has increased and the information given in the UFOC? Most of our Nations current franchisees are great hard working families and they should not be subjected to this. Franchise buyers have a myriad of questions that can take hours Franchise buyers ask lots of questions about the equipment, etc. Some of those who call are not interested in buying a franchise as much as obtaining information as a competitor or they could just as easily be an international terrorist.Again.. Why make it easy for a terrorist to call up franchisees and ask them questions about their businesses? In the case of a company whose franchisee’s things such as; spray rigs, polypropylene tanks, inline soap injection, mixing of chemicals, spray tips, etc. I do not believe it is a good idea for any of the large service franchisors like; Ser
You can not: end a reserve-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the reserve
You can not: end a no-price auction early because it doesn’t look like bidding will reach the minimum you hope to get for the item
You can not: encourage bidders to contact you directly to purchase the item off eBay
You can not: require the buyer who wins the auction to buy something else. For example, a certificate for cheap airfare that requires the buyer to pay for three nights in a specific hotel.
You can not: give the buyer a choice at the end of the auction. For example, if you have a blue tie and a red tie for sale, they should be listed as two separate auctions – not one auction with a “choice” at the end of the transaction
You can not: include a static or clickable link to a non-eBay website
In most situations, it’s the bidder who reports to eBay that fee avoidance is occurring or has occurred. However, as a savvy seller it is your obligation to report to eBay these violations made by your competitors. Many times a new seller to eBay doesn't know they are breaking policies - and certainly doesn't know what to do once they receive a warning from eBay. From time to time you'll see people cease to be a competitor because they often quit selling on eBay out of frustration. Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension or permanent suspension.
2. Stealing Photos
One of my students recently spent thousands of dollars on professional photos for their products, only to find their photos “stolen” and placed on that competitors eBay listings.
It’s not easy to take great photos – and it’s tempting for people who see a perfect photo to “right click”, save the photo to their desktop and upload the photo as their own. This occurs a lot – and is mostly done by new sellers on eBay who don’t understand that your photos are not part of the public domain for their own use.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Sh
One day I was telling a friend of mine about all the reasons why he should do everything he can to keep the seller of a business he was buying on board to manage it. When I got through telling him why this would add years to his life and make his business life virtually stress-free, he asked what he should do if the owner wants to just drop out and retire? What should he say to keep that person in? Very good questions. And all I can say is that, in the last 15 or 20 years, the majority of the owners I’ve worked with stay on. In fact, many of them will volunteer to stay, even though they were thinking of kicking back and retiring before. Reason why is because you're pretty much making their dream come true. They get to run a business without being responsible for it. In other words, you're cashing them out -- and giving them a huge bundle of money on the sale -- and you're taking all the risks away from them. They can now run their company while getting paid a good salary, but without the financial pressures and responsibilities they had before. And that's why, on every deal I have had in the last 10, 15, maybe even 20 years now -- I can’t keep track -- the former owners have mostly all stayed on. And why they will for you, too.
In most situations, it’s the bidder who reports to eBay that fee avoidance is occurring or has occurred. However, as a savvy seller it is your obligation to report to eBay these violations made by your competitors. Many times a new seller to eBay doesn't know they are breaking policies - and certainly doesn't know what to do once they receive a warning from eBay. From time to time you'll see people cease to be a competitor because they often quit selling on eBay out of frustration. Sellers who have a fee-avoidance complaint against them can expect a warning, temporary suspension or permanent suspension.
2. Stealing Photos
One of my students recently spent thousands of dollars on professional photos for their products, only to find their photos “stolen” and placed on that competitors eBay listings.
It’s not easy to take great photos – and it’s tempting for people who see a perfect photo to “right click”, save the photo to their desktop and upload the photo as their own. This occurs a lot – and is mostly done by new sellers on eBay who don’t understand that your photos are not part of the public domain for their own use.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Sh
Have you ever been transferred on the telephone to the so-called customer service department and the lady or gentleman on the other end cannot or rather will not help you with your problem? All you get is a bureaucratic; I am sorry but that is our policy.And you think to yourself; I am sorry but I was your customer and now I am your competitors customer and I am going to tell the whole friggin world too. Well if you have had this experience and such thoughts you are not alone. In fact this is exactly the problem that businesses and corporations face these days.They cannot find anyone smart enough to do the job right, so they make all sorts of insane policies, which do nothing more than piss off the consumer, get them in trouble with Federal Consumer Regulators and help the their competition in the market place.But one good thing for the company when this is occurring is that they can fix this problem. Of course the longer they wait the more damage that is done. How do they fix it? Well they need to bring in some professionals to do the trick. Because if it has gotten to this point then obviously they do not know what they are doing. Consider this in 2006.
Copyright laws apply to the Internet just as they apply to other media. Should you find your photos on the listings of a competitor, simply report this to eBay and that competitors listings should be removed. When you’re reviewing your competitors listings for violations, don’t just look at the titles, but review the entire listings and read the descriptions, looks at the photos, etc.
3. Shill Bidding
Shill bidding happens when a seller (or accomplice) bids on his or her own auctions – with the intent of driving up the price. For example, a seller might have two eBay ID’s and use one of them to bid. They might also convince a friend, family member or co-worker to bid on an item with no intention of buying it. Shill bidding can be tempting when lots of people are watching an item but no one’s bidding – just one false bid to get things rolling – or when bidding is slow and it looks like an item will sell for a lot less than the seller thinks it’s worth.
Shill bidding is a little more difficult to detect in a competitors listings – but is still something you should look for. Review your competitors “closed” auctions. Review the last 30 days of completed listings and look at the buyers/bidders. More specifically, look to see what the feedback score is for these buyers/bidders.
Do you notice a pattern? Can you see a trend? Does the same user ID purchase multiple items from the seller (for an item that would have no need for multiple purchases)? When did these users registers? If shill bidding is happening, many of the “bidder” accounts will have recent eBay registration dates.
Shill bidding happens with new sellers who think "what's the harm in increasing the price just a little - no one will know." Shill bidding also happens with experience, high level sellers. Recently two top jewelry sellers were warned and had their accounts suspended by eBay for shill bidding...they were bidding on each others' auctions.
Shill bidding is illegal, and is another policy violation that eBay takes very seriously. eBay has very sophisticated tools and technology to track shill bidding. If you believe there is shill bidding activity going on within a sellers account, report it to eBay and they will begin an investagation.
4. Keyword Spamming
As you become aware of what keyword spam is, you’ll begin to notice how frequently this policy violation actually happens. While some advanced eBay sellers who are making money on eBay will actually keyword spam intentionally, many new sellers are unintentionally violating this eBay policy.
By definition, keyword spamming is "the act of trying to attract buyers to your auction by putting popular but inappropriate keywords in the title". In situations like this, sellers often use keyword spamming to make their items appear in a wider range of search results, even though what they’re offering isn’t exactly what the buyer is looking for. A title like: Brand new mens watch CITIZEN SEIKO ROLEX CARTIER is an example. One watch can’t be from all those manufacturers, but the seller wants his title to show up in the search results of people searching for watch – and also for anyone searching for any of those manufacturers by name.
eBay makes the point that keyword spamming is unfair to buyers – that a seller is wasting a buyer's time with a title that promises something that the seller doesn't, in fact, have to offer. There are several kinds of keyword spamming - all of which violate eBay's policies.
You can not:: compare. Your title must describe what you’re selling and not compare it to something that you are not selling. For example, let's say your have a listing that says: Womens purse, like prada for less. This would be considered a violation of the keyword spamming policy. The auction is not for a prada purse but the seller is trying to attract bidders looking for that specific designer handbag. Comparisons don’t have to use the word "like"; either. Titles like: even cuter than a beanie baby or workout clothes, not nike addidas puma also violate the policy.
You can not: include a list of related words. This restriction applies to both titles and descriptions. In a title you're limited to 55 characters, so you can’t really make long lists. However, it’s against eBay policy to fill up your item description with long lists of words that are there for no other reason than to attract the attention of shoppers who are searching by both title and description. For example, if you're selling cosmetics, don’t include a list of words like this in the description: lipstick lipgloss l
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