eBay News and E-Commerce Tools
Steve Hartman, director of on-site advertising for eBay, has provided some news and updates regarding the advertising that shows up on eBay.com. In his post, Hartman wrote, "There are different reasons people use eBay. Some come to browse, buy, sell and connect. Others simply come to research or have fun. The testing we've done has helped us better predict when providing advertising actually helps as part of these experiences."

Sellers have long taken issue with third-party advertisements on the eBay Web site, thinking, naturally, that it could potentially send buyers away from auction listings. Addressing this issue to some extent in his post, Hartman also said that "the current on-site advertising strategy is to identify when people are most likely to buy or bid, so that eBay doesn't display ads that are likely to put potential transactions on eBay at risk."

EBay took action by closing the discussion forum to prevent further disclosure, but took no responsibility for the leak. The company said that it was a result of account take-overs, not a security breach for which eBay is at fault. Regardless of who is at fault, it means the malicious person who did the posting has access to 1,200 credit card numbers and so do any of the eBay members who viewed the forum posts before eBay turned off access to the forum. EBay has said they will call affected members to notify them of the security leak.

Canadian PowerSellers Tapped for Taxes
On Thursday the Federal Court of Canada ruled that eBay Canada Ltd. must release personal information about its high-volume sellers to the Canada Revenue Agency (CRA), assisting the government agency in locating sellers who are not paying their fair share of taxes. According to a CTV.ca report, the CRA is targeting Canadian eBay sellers who qualified for the PowerSeller program in 2004 and 2005. The decision brought down by the Federal Court of Canada fueled discussions on the eBay Canada community forum. While some comments applauded large eBay businesses being forced to pay up just as brick-and-mortar stores do at income tax time, others believe this will only contribute to a decline in listings on the Canadian eBay auction site.

Reseller Second Rotation Nets You Money for Used Electronics. (Click for larger image.)

Once the condition of the merchandise and so on is verified, you then receive a payment. Second Rotation is an excellent option for those who do not have the time to invest in selling on eBay to get rid of their old and used electronics. In turn, Second Rotation itself uses online marketplaces such as eBay or Craigslist to resell your item. Since this site does resell, you can probably expect to get less for the item than you would selling it yourself, but this service also removes the time associated with dealing with a buyer yourself, or listing and not getting a buyer at all.

Eye on the Little Guy: Free Keyword Building
For sellers, finding the right keywords to describe items can mean the difference between a higher value sale or no sale at all. While you need to describe your item in the listing title accurately, you also need to use as many popular keywords as you can so that your listing is shown to the largest possible pool of potential buyers. To start with, you should take some time to figure out exactly what people are searching for within the specific category you plan to sell. EBay Pulse is one keyword tracker that can assist you in finding popular keywords to use in your listing.

For example, if you have a gold ring to sell, you can view the top searched-for words in eBay's Jewellery & Watches category. Here you will see the following popular searches, according to the number of searches performed. This category includes; vintage, Rolex, Chanel, rings, Gucci, gold, watches, Versace, Breitling and Omega. For a seller, you will want to use as many of these keywords as possible in the listing title.

Remember, it is important not to engage in keyword spamming, which is using keywords that do not accurately describe your item just to get more hits, as this could result in your listing being cancelled by eBay. You must use appropriate keywords, so if the item is not a Rolex, don't use Rolex in your listing.

Another aspect of effective key word strategy is creating text that will be popular in searches. For instance, the listing should include both the title and description for those who choose to include description text in their searches. For those sellers who aren't quite so wordy, you can use free services, such as the Google AdWords Keyword Tool to assist you in finding alternative, related keywords for your listing.

If you have a Google Account, which is free, you can also use this tool to find out what keywords are most popular at different times throughout the year, which would be useful for sellers planning special holiday sales and listings. Sellers can also check out "Maximize Your 55 Characters," if you missed it in a previous eBay Watch column for even more help with writing your title listings.

Learn the Lingo: Common eBay Listing Acronyms
To help make the most out of your precious little listing space, here are some common eBay acronyms and their meanings. You can use the abbreviations in both your title and description to help sell with less text space.

For a detailed list of acronyms, see the Online Auction Abbreviations page in the Quick reference section of Webopedia.com.

Only on eBay...
When is a wooden desk worth more than $11,000? When it's the seven- piece set collection from "The Tonight Show With Jay Leno," of course. With all proceeds from this auction benefiting Bailey's Cafe, a center for educational and cultural activity, this eBay auction offers buyers the chance to own a collection of furniture that has been seen on-air some 800 times from September 2003 to August 2007. Leno will also personalize it with an autograph on the desktop addressed to the winning bidder.

The seller, "tonight-show" lists the following as the item condition: "This furniture was custom constructed exclusively for The Tonight Show with Jay Leno and is finished front, back and sides in the same material. There is normal wear and tear but no major tears or stains. The desktop is leather and does have some marks from a Sharpie that Jay keeps on his desk for guest notes. The furniture has been cleaned for this auction."

With another six days until auction end, the price has been bid up to over $11,111 in 45 bids. This listing has also been restricted to pre-approved bidders or buyers to help discourage fraudulent bidding.

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