If eBay had a time machine I bet they’d go back and kill the “about me” page…
Wednesday, October 4th, 2006 - 7:25 am
If eBay had a time machine…they’d fix a leak called the “about me” page. But I think I’ve found proof that it’s too late for eBay to fix it now…their loss, our gain.
The “about me” page is the free feature that surprisingly few eBay sellers take advantage of. In my experience the “about me” page is literally a money machine feeding my wallet - and eBay not only allows it, but encourages it under current policy!
You’ve likely noticed the little red and blue “me” symbol next to some eBay user ID’s. That’s a link to the eBay members fully customizable “about me” page.
The “about me” page is that magical place where eBay allows you to “tell the world about yourself”. That wonderful moto has lead to countless fortunes for many an eBay seller.
Those that understand the “about me” page and the marketing potential understand the eBay profits don’t stop at the end of an auction.
When eBay first invited account holders to “tell the world about yourself” I think they intended to see pictures of pets and long dry ramblings about vacations and grandkids etc.
Then those of us with marketing creativity started using the “about me” page as marketing space!
Fast forward a few years and the “about me” page leak has grown to a raging river that eBay can’t stop.
Why can’t they stop it? Because even the most loyal of eBay users DEMAND the ability to add their own personality, links, marketing and images to their eBay accounts.
EBay knows that the angry roar that it hears with each new minor fee increase is NOTHING compared to the blast of anger they’d get if they took away the “about me” pages.
Who would lead the angry charge if eBay dropped “about me” pages?
It WOULDN’T be the creative marketers like me or those that have read my best seller “The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay”.
Instead it would be the average eBay users with pictures of grandkids and links to their favorite recipe blogs that would really go nuts and curse eBay.
So the leak remains…but is eBay up to something?
EBay is introducing a new feature called “MyWorld“. It just came out a few days ago. Here’s a link to the MyWorld info page on eBay: CLICK HERE
Clearly this is an attempt to tap into the “MySpace.com” phenomenon, but when I first heard about this new feature my intuition immediately told me there was more to the story.
If you aren’t familiar with MySpace.com just ask ANYONE between the ages of 14 and 18. MySpace.com is the MOST VISITED non-search engine website on the planet - right up there with eBay.
The problem with MySpace.com is that it isn’t making anyone much money yet…but that’s a different article for a different day.
Let’s focus on eBay.
The new “MyWorld” feature is (to put it kindly) rigid and boring right now. By rigid I mean you have very limited choices, two preset layout templates, and perhaps most frighteningly NO opportunity to add your own links to outside websites or “subscription” boxes like you do with “about me” pages.
Another scary bit of info… eBay is calling “MyWorld” pages your chance to “tell the world about yourself”. Sound familiar?
Apparently I wasn’t the only one that suspected that the new sterile “MyWorld” page might be a sneaky attempt to fix the “about me” page leak and eliminate the “about me” page altogether.
Breathe a sigh of relief…it’s not going to happen.
The “about me” page is here to stay according to eBay representatives currently responding to a barrage of inquiries. You can follow the action on the MyWorld chat board.
I could go on and on about this but I won’t.
The bottom line is that the opportunity to generate consistent income from eBay as a marketing tool is as strong as it has ever been and the long term prospects look very positive that it will remain that way.
To learn what others think of my best seller that teaches you how to treat eBay as a marketing machine click here.
May I make a prediction?
One of the features you can expect to see out of “MyWorld” is the ability to link to your “friends” MyWorld page to your own. This is what has made “MySpace.com” so popular and I suspect eBay will open up the floodgates on this concept soon. What’s the marketing value? None that I can see yet, but I’ll keep an eye on it for you.
Bottom line: EBay is trying to copy MySpace (not sure how that helps us yet) and the About Me page is here to stay.
Jim,
As always…you are on the cutting edge when it comes to getting the most from your Ebay dollars. All of this makes so much sense!
To anyone reading this post…take action and make the most of “My World” on Ebay TODAY!
Joseph Ratliff
Professional Direct Marketing Consultant
http://profitablebusinessedge.blogspot.com
http://www.dynamicwebcopy.com
\”By rigid you mean I have very limited choices, two preset layout templates, and perhaps most frighteningly NO opportunity to add your own links to outside websites or “subscription” boxes like you do with “about me” pages.\”
You can use promotion boxes on the My World page from your eBay store if you have one. This allows you to put in links and other HTML into the page.
I have to think that Ebay is trying to wean people away from the About Me page. If they offer the “latest and greatest” with the My World, then they can infer that AboutMe is “old school”. This is the same way they have done with the new listing form, which is a complete disaster. Those of us Power Sellers know that the new listing form was developed not for ease of use by the sellers, but for marketing more of Ebay’s Add-on products. It was put out before it was completely functional and Ebay technical people have told me on several occasions that it “wasn’t ready for prime time”.
Ebay seems to be churning the waters with all of their “innovations” which are not for the benefit of their sellers.
I have come to recognize the corporate culture of Ebay is to squeeze their revenue sources and force the more successful into other markets. I fail to understand the wisdom of this utter lack of customer service or development of customer loyalty.
I didn’t mean to ramble on, but it is this attitude that makes me very grateful for any of your hints that can help me SQUEEZE anything I can out of Ebay.
Thanks for your newsletter hints…they are refreshing and very useful.
Jim,
Thanks for that.
As a fairly recent convert to myspace as a musician/artist (www.myspace.com/aperfectstone) I can confirm that myspace is a great marketing tool for musicians, artists and creative types in general.
And as with eBay it’s the ‘outside the box’ creative thinking that really makes it fly. The assumption that it’s solely a hangout for 14-18 year old Goth fans cuases most entrepreneurs to miss the opportunites.
The ‘Indie’ musician’s champion, Bob Baker, wrote a great book about marketing on myspace. Although it’s geared towards the musicians etc the ideas are transferable to pretty much any niche - you can check it out here: http://tinyurl.com/fbatu
I look forward to your own creative ideas on it!
Cheers - Andy
I was very much looking forward to your take on the My World development. When I first heard about it, I have to admit that I thought \”Oh no, just when I am about to take advantage of the About Me page leak, here comes Ebay to fix it!\”
I sure hope you are right. In the meantime, I will keep planning my work and working my plan. The only constant on the net is change anyway!
[[REPLY FROM JIM]]: There really is no need for concern…that is the point that I am trying to make. eBay is NOT in the position to upset millions of eBay users (buyers and sellers alike) by removing the \”about me\” pages. We are talking about MILLIONS of one page websites that are indexed in the search engines, have emotional and professional content, contain the policies and customer FAQ\’s for thousands of businesses etc. Such a move would be disasterous. I do expect to see less emphasis on encouraging the creation of NEW about me pages though. For example- you know the link that says \”click here to create your own about me page\” that appears at the bottom of all current about me pages? It might magically dissapear one day…but about me pages are here long term. That\’s what the eBay officials are saying and I believe them. Also keep in mind…as much as you and I use the about me page to make a side profit 99.9% of all other eBay sellers dont\’ have a clue as to the potential to benefit from \”the leak\” that the about me page offers.
Hi Jim,
I have read through some of the comments on the ebay forum and here are some points on this:
A lot of users are saying \”ebay will probably drop the ME page\” which suggests to me that a lot of users are generally not bothered if it stays or not. I suppose not everyone utilizes it the way we do.
Ebay is saying the ME page stays! heres a quote:
\”We could have changed the ME pages, and not developed My World. The key here is that there are many uses that the About me page currently has, and we did not want to disrupt how our members currently use that page. So we made a decision to keep the About me pages and the icon, and build a new page that will help to incorporate many other features and functionality on the site (Blogs, Reviews and Guides, Stores, bio) while not disrupting what our members have already built on their about me pages. These 2 areas should compliment each other nicely\”
From this I can only think that Ebay is testing the waters with this to get a feel of general opinion without actually asking for it, they have effectively provoked a reaction without actually posing the question.
The ME page stays… for now…. but I think this may be an attempt to eventually converge the 2 and change some policies in the process, ie external linking etc
Lets hope not!
Bets wishes
Sean
[[reply from Jim]]: good points Sean. Like I said though I don\’t see eBay killing off millions of indexed content rich \”about me\” pages that currently bring them millions of hits daily. It\’s shooting themselves in the foot. Bottom line is that the \”about me\” pages are here to stay and they are a great way to cash in on eBay! The concepts in the book \”Silent Sales Machine\” are just as relevant today as they were when the book was first written 4 years ago.
Jim,
Maybe the value isn’t in the link going out. Maybe the value can be found in the reverse process. Kind of like how people still market with FFA’s. Everyone pretty much knows that putting ads into FFA’s doesn’t work, however the owner of the FFA still has those confirmation email addresses to use.
If the myworld page allows you to display your tags it could be a good source of pagerank and you can never have enough good quality links coming in. I’m still new to the whole tagging thing. I appreciate what you do Jim and keep it up.
Hi Jim,
Some great thoughts here. Piggybacking on the About Me pages potential issues, I was just wondering if you have any info on something I read about on Auction Bytes the other day, regarding Feedback Farms. By selling tons of $.01 E-books sellers can accumulate lots of feedback in a short period of time….as well as possibly reap some excesive shipping $$. Here is the article. http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y06/m10/i03/s02. Do we need to be fearful of Ebay changing any of the e-book rules? or eliminating them altogether?….just when I bought your book and plan to really get serious about making some $$ with informational products! lol
[[reply from Jim]]: I\’ve seen this strategy for generating feedback in action and eBay doesn\’t seem to mind…for now. My instinct is that eBay won\’t allow it much longer, but it\’s going to be hard for them to come up with a policy that makes it impossible to do. Don\’t let \”rule changes\” get in the way though. The one consistent factor in this biz is change and each change presents obstacles and opportunities. The current environment on eBay is AS GOOD AS IT HAS EVER BEEN for making great profits and that\’s because there are more buyers than ever and the number keeps going up. EBay has stated the \”the about me page isn\’t going anywhere\” - take advantage of it. http://www.silentsalesmachine.com tells you how…
You mention how this leak is safe for now, but you do not mention anything about what the leak is or give any information to benefit from it.
I can tell you all about this great stock that is sure to go up and up and up and make any investor an incredible amount of money, talk about how the earnings are beating expectations every quarter, etc, but without telling you the company name or stock symbol, you will not benefit at all.
I understand you are trying to sell your book, but at least give some information to entice me to buy instead of just a sales pitch promising the same thing everyone else on the internet is promising…to get rich quick or enlarge my **** (edited).
[[reply from Jim]]: Right to the point with that one!! Go back and read the very first sentance of my post above. I reveal EXACTLY what the eBay leak is. You will not find many Internet experts that give more away free than I do… The article above is not a teaser. I have spelled it all out. The about me page is where eBay allows you to link to the outside world (beyond eBay). You can funnel a lot of traffic from eBay to your own webpage, affiliate offer, subscription form etc. You can read the eBay policy, stay within the rules, and benefit from it dramatically. If you want specific step by step - yes, you will have to buy the book… :0) Sorry I had to edit your post but my mom reads this blog for heavens sake (I will always have one fan). Watch your mouth next time. ;0)
Jim,
Another excellent post, Jim! I’m drafting an update to my About Me to reflect my evolution as an eBay seller, products offered and policies. I will explore using MyWorld, but my focus will be on About Me because so many sellers - with far more experience than me - are missing the boat on it.
Regards,
Ray Harris