eBay NARUed the last Pulser tonight around 7:30 pm.
What happened Josh? And you got your first negative in 12 months today too. Bummer.
April 29, 2008
April 28, 2008
A “Press Release” on the eBay Pulse
Who do you suppose wrote this “press release”?
http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=64119
At least he could have given me a credit for sizing the Pulsers’ annual eBay sales.
Josh Kulp back on eBay Pulse after a week hiatus
Here is the eBay listing in the Business category with nearly 120,000 watchers.
jjfjq has another listing in the Everything Else category with 41,642 watchers. This listing gained 43 watchers immediately, then added zero watchers in the past few hours.
The script still works.
April 25, 2008
eBay gets tough on sellers
As reported by Ina Steiner of Auction Bytes, eBay gets tough on sellers.
eBay shifted their focus from sellers to buyers last year when they dramatically increased the affiliate payouts while funding it with increased seller fees.
It’s the right move for eBay. If eBay has solid buyer traffic, there will always be sellers jumping at the chance to sell. For example, look at high population growth areas with new home buyers. The homes are built first, then the grocery stores appear. You don’t see grocery stores in the middle of nowhere before the customer base is established.
And besides, there’s no pleasing eBay sellers anyway. Just look at the negativity on the forums.
eBay is one of the lowest cost, high traffic sales channel out there. If a seller can’t turn a profit on eBay because of a 5-10% fee increase, then it’s not because of eBay. It’s because they chose a poor market or are not able to market their products successfully.
seo_marketing_master NARU on eBay
Now where did seo_marketing_master go? He was there yesterday. This is a NARU epidemic.
April 23, 2008
Great Video and Write-up on the eBay Pulse script
This researcher did a great job with his video on the eBay Pulse Script. It’s the one run by the top tier Pulsers which adds 1 watcher every 90 seconds. http://www.gurucreation.com/2008/04/ebay-pulse-scam.html
There is one missing piece in the puzzle. He says that you can add watchers to a scheduled listing. But why does the number of watchers on new listings by Kekoa64, MysteryGiant and Josh Kulp start where the last listing ended?
For example, jjfjq’s last listing ended with 116,644 watchers on Sunday, 4/20, and the new one started with 117,862 watchers on 4/21?
There must be a way to relist an item without losing the number of watchers.
Thanks, anonymous, for the link!
Finally, I wonder what video creation software is gurucreation is running. It has sweet features.
April 22, 2008
Best Match tool and Best of eBay
“Best” is the new buzzword on eBay.
The new game in cybertown is the Best Match. eBay now applies a secret formula to determine which listings are shown first in the search results. It’s a new opportunity for gamers. Try it out here:
eBay Best Match tool
Flickr.com has a similar ranking called “interestingness”. The top 500 are shown on Flickr’s Explore page. Users are very proud of their photos that make Explorer. FYI – My husband made #1 once with a photo of a pair of White-tailed does.
Check out a digg-like page where users can vote for the best listings on eBay. Best of eBay Thanks for pointing this out, Jake!
April 21, 2008
April 20, 2008
Then and Now on the eBay Pulse
A few months ago we had 5 Pulsers with tens of thousands of watchers. http://watcheditem.com/2008/01/28/two-new-scripting-ebay-pulsers/
Now, only jjfjq is the top Pulser with little competition. http://www.esellerstreet.com/search.php5?catID=99 There is another Pulser called make.your.cash.stack out of Arizona. I think this could be a second account by the.rich.boy.
Kekoa64 and the.rich.boy have zero listings.
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZthe.rich.boy
http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZkekoa64
MysteryGiant is NARU.
the-new-easy-cash-system has two listings on eBay.co.uk. But they only have 7 watchers on their top listing. http://search.ebay.com/_W0QQsassZthe-new-easy-cash-system
April 16, 2008
Amazon Web Services reduces cost for startups
I got a visitor from Amazon AWS yesterday.
In the past week, I’ve decided to use AWS for my banner maker processing and storage instead of dedicated servers. My driver is efficiency – both in terms of money and computing resources.
Here’s a summary of Amazon Web Services:
Amazon now allows businesses to “rent” computing power, data storage and bandwidth. Small- to mid-sized companies can take advantage of Amazon Web Services (AWS) such as the Simple Storage Service (S3), Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), Simple Queue Service (SQS), Flexible Payments Service (FPS), and SimpleDB to build web-scale business applications. Amazon offers a new paradigm: use what you need, as you need it, and pay as you go.
This is why I love the web industry. The cost of running a web service is low and going lower. The main expenses of a web business are:
- People – but Elance.com helps with outsourcing development – rates are $15-$20 per hour
- Servers – Each dedicated server runs $300+ a month
- Accounting – $2000 a year for a corporation
- Advertising – Email marketing $30-$100 per month – optional affiliate program
AWS reduces #2. SmugMug for example saved $1M in one year using AWS. A photo-hosting service with 10,000 users needs ~10 dedicated servers @ $3,000 per month. When I get the figures for a AWS solution, I’ll post the savings figures.
The beauty of renting computing power and storage is that you don’t have to commit, just pay for what you use. It’s like going to a buffet and only paying for what you eat.
Amazon is doing their part to disrupt the status quo of startups.
Status quo ->
-
Raise Venture Cap, spend a lot of money, have meetings, develop a web service, own a fraction of the service.
Now it’s ->
-
Develop a great web service. Own your service.
Thank you, Amazon and Jeff Bezos, for creating a better way build a startup!
April 15, 2008
MysteryGiant goes NARU
NARUs a pretty common nowadays. I’m more sensitive to NARUs since I got my wrist slapped last week. It can happen to anyone.
Thanks for the heads up, Mike! 
April 14, 2008
Sizing the “Make Money” eBook market on eBay
Let’s estimate the amount of eBay sales of eBooks about making money. Sellers strive to differentiate their products by using different keywords and categories. So the best approach is to research the big sellers and multiply by a fudge factor to account for the small sellers. Let’s call the fudge factor 2.
I’ll start with Kekoa64. He sold $7.5K in 30 days a few months ago. jjfjq sold $4.5K and mysterygiant ~$1K. These three sellers had combined sales of over 1,135 eBooks during this 30 day period and $13K in revenue.
Multiplying by 2 produces an eBay sales figure of “Make Money” eBooks of $26K per month. That’s $312K per year! The only cost of sales is eBay fees. That’s the sweetest market I’ve ever seen.
Now I should mention for comparison purposes that Skip McGrath sells printed material on how to make money on eBay. During the same period, he sold $1.5K in books and another $9.5K in lighting kits for sellers.
Yes, this is a great niche, if you can get in it. But there are really only three sellers making a living on it out of 1 million eBay sellers. And these three aren’t just average people, either. They’re extremely sharp.
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Details for Kekoa64 – 30 days of eBay sales in January, 2008.
Totals and pricing
| Revenue: | $7,512 | Average Sold Price: | $9.99 | |
| Total Listings: | 13 | Lowest Sold Price: | $9.99 | |
| Successful Listings: | 12 | Highest Sold Price: | $9.99 | |
| Bids: | 752 | Frequent Sold Price: | $9.99 | |
| Items Sold: | 752 | |||
| Items Offered: | 1,816 | |||
| Success Rate: | 92% | |||
Top Categories
| Cat # | Category Name | Listings | Revenue | Sell- Through | Avg Sold Price |
| 102485 | Information Products > How-To Guides > Self Employment”>Everything Else > Information Products > How-To Guides > Self Employment: | 8 | $6,723 | 100% | $9.99 |
| 1469 | Weird Stuff > Totally Bizarre”>Everything Else > Weird Stuff > Totally Bizarre: | 2 | $649 | 100% | $9.99 |
| 64355 | Cell Phones > Phones w/o Service Contracts”>Cell Phones & PDAs > Cell Phones > Phones w/o Service Contracts: | 1 | $0 | 0% | $0.00 |
| 378 | Nonfiction Books”>Books > Nonfiction Books: | 1 | $80 | 100% | $9.99 |
| 46689 | Other Industries > Websites & Businesses for Sale > Internet Businesses, Websites > Other Internet Businesses”>…Other Industries > Websites & Businesses for Sale > Internet Businesses, Websites > Other Internet Businesses: | 1 | $60 | 100% | $9.99 |
Matching Items
Listing Types
| Type | Listings | Revenue | Sell-Through | Avg Sold Price |
| Fixed Price: | 13 | $7,512 | 92% | $9.99 |
