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In this newsletter:
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1. Why worry about retirement?
2. eBay: All bark and no bite on classified ads policy?!
3. Quick tips:
   – Is Obama a good JV partner?
   – Have a success story?

eBay: All bark and no bite on classified ads policy?!

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Classified ads are a huge opportunity on eBay but recently in an obscure, hidden chat discussion with the head of eBay “trust and safety” the rules were SUPPOSEDLY changed. SUPPOSEDLY we could no longer put external links (links to our websites) inside classified ads.

This seems like a crazy rule, but hey, it’s their ball game…we have to play by the rules right? That’s why I came out with this “updated classified ad strategy” video and posted it on youtube:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MHYpxWbDdUI

If you want to be 100% safe with classified ads on eBay that’s still the way to go (and it works great), BUT…

eBay is only TALKING a big game about enforcing all these rumored classified ads policies, but so far I’m just not seeing it!

Here’s the proof:

First let’s start with the fact that eBay STILL has not put any policy updates on the classified ads policy page located here:

http://pages.ebay.com/help/sell/f-ad.html

Do you see anything on that page about linking to outside websites or disallowing “pay now” buttons? I sure don’t (as of 4/28/2008).

That page looks the same as it did two years ago when they first announced classified ads. We’ve been begging for them to update that page for TWO YEARS.

SO WHAT’S THE POLICY?

That’s the ONLY page that has any classified ad policy listed on it and there are still NO RULES OR CLARIFICATION OF ANY KIND.

So…what other HARD evidence do I have that the eBay watchdog dog is asleep and toothless?

I did a little experiment yesterday. Feel free to try this experiment at home (perfectly safe I assure you).

I randomly picked several classified ads currently running on eBay. I only picked ads that had been running for a minimum of two weeks (all ads run for at least 30 days). I think you’ll agree that two weeks gives eBay ample time to find the ads that have violations right?

I also picked several different types of ads in true random fashion. (I minored in statistics remember? I know how to pick a “sample”.)

The whole time I was looking for “policy violations” based on the new “mystery” rules.

Guess how many ads had some type of “supposed” policy violation?

Seriously – take a guess.

80% is the number.

No, not 80% compliance.

80% of the ads that have been out there for two weeks or more are in VIOLATION of the “mystery policies”!

This tells me that eBay CLEARLY IS NOT ENFORCING ANY OF THE NEW POLICIES nor are they COMMUNICATING them to anyone.

Not only does the dog have no bite…it’s barely even barking.

What’s that mean for us as “creative” eBay sellers?

Draw your own conclusions, but…

Until eBay clearly updates the policy page and then begins making even a minimal effort at enforcing the policies it seems to me that THERE IS NO POLICY.

Bottom line for the adventurous eBay seller: GO FOR IT with classified ads! 80% of your colleagues are and they are doing great!

Here’s some ideas on how to “go for it” with classified ads if the mood hits you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yq7qcFdbQG0

Over 4,000 people have viewed that video and many have taken action with literally OVER NIGHT results. The simplicity of classified ads make them a great way for newbies to get rolling quickly.

We’ll keep you updated if the dog starts to get some teeth.

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In this newsletter:
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1. Even heroes need good internet marketing
2. Tim is making $34,000 monthly with Google Adsense
3. Quick tips:
– A new AWeber trick
– Silent Sales Machine revision

Even heroes need good internet marketing

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What do you tell a guy who gets a TON of exposure and traffic to his site but isn’t converting that traffic in to sales?This is a “before and after” story still in progress.If you could care less about sports you can skip the next two paragraphs, but they are somewhat relevant to the story.I play some pretty serious basketball a couple times per week with a bunch of guys which isn’t unusual at all around here even for guys in their late 30′s and even older. This is Indiana after all.

For anyone that thinks they might have more basketball in their blood that I do here in Indiana here are some facts for you to consider…we’ve got Larry Bird, the movie Hoosiers, Bob Knight, any given year 4-6 teams in the NCAA tournament and I actually played my high school basketball for the same school as the legendary John Wooden. And yes – the gym is named after him. Don’t even try to top that!

Back to work…

One of the guys I’ve been playing ball with for years is a local Marine hero that served bravely in Iraq until he was severely injured in the line of duty. He fought his way back to be healthy enough to hang with the “serious ballers” as we call ourselves.

He’s got a couple of websites that he needs our advice on. Ready to use your thinking cap? Ready to see what I told him to do?

Recently I’ve gotten to know Klay (my Marine buddy) better. I’ve realized that he is pretty well known around the U.S. as the founder of a website that supports injured U.S. soldiers. The site is VeteransOfValor.org (and also a sister site OCP247.com). As we started talking about his sites he shared some of his frustrations in marketing the site.

Klay and his parents have poured money, blood, sweat and tears into these sites…and they are barely staying afloat. They need help so I’m volunteering to do what I can to advise them.

The problem isn’t TRAFFIC though…it’s CONVERSION RATES.

He gets steady traffic because Klay has been on the news locally and nationally frequently. His story is mesmerizing and energizing. He’s bee in national magazines, newspapers radio programs, etc. He’s got quite a following. Everyone wants to support a hero so they get a lot of traffic, but the conversion rate on his sites…let’s just say…it’s awful.

Check out the sites and let us know (as briefly as possible please) what things you would do differently if you were in charge of the “upgrade”. Try to focus your advice on improving CONVERSION rate for now…not MARKETING IDEAS.

I’ll reveal what advice I’ve given them based on the concepts that I KNOW WORK WELL. It’s the same stuff I talk about every week in my free newsletter!

Work will be starting on the two sites soon so I’ve attached a pic below of the “before” look of both sites so you can give your opinion.

http://www.silentsalesmachine.com/images/ocp247dotcom.bmp
http://www.silentsalesmachine.com/images/vovdotcom.bmp

What changes would you make to these sites?

While you are looking it over…why not make a donation to a fantastic cause?

Again the two sites are:
http://www.veteransofvalor.org/
http://www.ocp247.com/

Click the reply button below to leave your suggestions or comments on these two sites.

I’ll reveal the same RELATIVELY SIMPLE yet EXTREMELY POWERFUL ideas and strategies I’m telling Klay’s design team in an upcoming newsletter.

The latest newsletter is available online

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Click here to read
In this newsletter:
===============
1. Can’t keep a good entrepreneur down!
2. eBay Classified ads after the policy change
3. Quick tips:
   – Reaction to virtual smart agent
   – Good idea vs bad idea
   – One on one coaching

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