Stop your whining!

Put on your big boy (or big girl) pants and let’s think through this…

Admittedly it can be frustrating dealing with eBay as a seller, but the benefits of the exposure you get from eBay still FAR OUTWEIGH the negatives – especially if you are CREATIVE!

(NOTE: If you DON’T yet have an eBay account you still really NEED TO READ THIS!)

One of the main purposes of this newsletter is to help my readers adapt and benefit in spite of the difficulties.

For example…

Recently I’ve again heard some rumors (nothing official) that eBay might do away with “about me” pages in the future. From the perspective of a creative eBay seller the “about me” page is a great marketing tool that allows you to expose your business or website to steady streams of TARGETED eBay traffic. I won’t go into detail on how to use your “about me” page as a marketing tool because this topic is covered in detail in my book “The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay” (link below).

Each time I’ve looked into the issue of eBay canceling or changing the “about me” page though I’ve been reassured by eBay that the “about me” page isn’t going anywhere.

One of my stronger arguments for why I think they WON’T delete them:

Let’s assume for a minute that eBay DID decide to change the “about me” page policies though (they always have a surprise up their sleeve). I really don’t think they would ever just “delete” them all. If they delete them all we are talking about millions of pages of indexed content going away (that means millions of search engine links pointing at eBay disappearing). EBay would be crazy to delete all of these pages that are giving them free exposure on the search engines. Are they THAT CRAZY? I’d like to think not, but even if they did pull the trigger there are still MANY ways to creatively market with an eBay account!

If you want my full opinion on “about me” pages and why I think they WON’T go away you should read this blog post from late last year:

Last year’s blog post

A more likely scenario though is that eBay would implement a policy of “No New About Me Pages”.

EBay could decide to STOP ALLOWING NEW “about me” pages. They would “grandfather in” all old “about me” pages and leave them alone while at the same time they could stop offering this feature to all NEW accounts. Sound crazy? Maybe it is, but this is the same way they’ve handled some tough issues in the past.

One example of “grandfathering” can be found in the policy surrounding “Seller ID’s”. A few years ago you could pick any Seller ID you wanted including an ID that directly promoted your website. Look up the ebay seller ID “restaurant.com” for example. Now eBay is MUCH more restrictive about what ID you are allowed to choose and unless you picked a good ID before the cutoff date they can ask you to change it!

Sound unfair? ABSOLUTELY it’s not fair! But it gives you proof that there can indeed be two sets of rules.

TAKE ACTION : Even if you have no plans to sell on eBay in the near future AND even if you don’t see the need for an “about me” page right now you should go get an eBay account NOW and set up an “about me” page! This way if eBay ever “grandfathers” in all old “about me” pages you are “on the inside”. The same line of thinking applies to having multiple eBay accounts. Right now you can set up as many accounts as you want, but will eBay change this policy as some point? Why not set up a few accounts now just in case?

Here’s a link to register a new eBay account:

Click Here

Here’s a link for more info on about me pages:

Click Here

Please leave your comments and thoughts by clicking the “comments” link below!

Jim Cockrum

http://www.JimCockrum.com

The Silent Sales Machine Hiding on eBay

http://www.SilentSalesMachine.com

(The most creative and all time best selling eBay eBook in the world)