Creative Compulsion

Lately, I’ve been working on the SEO for my websites one by one. I recently took a free online search engine optimization class taught by Cricket Walker. The class is great, with easy to understand information and each lesson gives you another aspect of SEO to work on. I highly recommend it!

So, needless to say, I’ve been doing a lot of reading on the subject. Last night, I came across a site called SEO Book. Wow! What a resource.

The first thing that caught my eye was the SEO Book Keyword Suggestion Tool. Totally cool. I’m currently paying for a keyword service, and while it’s good, I find it a little overwhelming to work with. The SEO Book tool is much more basic, but gives a host of information.

With this great tool, you just pop in your keywords, and it will come back with predicted daily search counts from Google, Yahoo and Live. It also gives you keyword variations based on your original search.

Once you’ve studied the keyword counts, you can go on to explore Google Trends, Google Traffic Estimator, Keyword tool and more, right from the same page. At any time, you can click on one of the keyword variations and the process starts again. I love it!

Other great tools found on SEO Book are the Rank Checker and SEO extensions for Firefox. Try them, I guarantee you’ll love these nifty little time savers!

Beyond the tools, SEO Book also offers a blog, a forum, free training videos and paid SEO training as well. I didn’t even scratch the surface of this site yesterday, I know how I’ll be spending my Saturday morning!

Enjoy

A year or so ago, I posted an eBay fees calculator/spreadsheet. Since eBay’s fee structure has changed quite a bit since then, I thought I’d update the spreadsheet available on my site.

The spreadsheet is free to use. It calculates gross profit based on your cost to acquire, selling price, eBay FVFs and PayPal fees. It works for both store inventory items and auctions/FP listings.

One important note, unlike the fancy schmancy programs, it doesn’t automatically insert the auction/FP listing fee for you. I do have a breakdown of the listing fees below the spreadsheet so that you can easily pop in the correct amount.

At the bottom of the spreadsheet is a Website fees calculator. This is handy for figuring out PayPal fees on your personal website.

Enjoy

eBay Fees Calculator Spreadsheet

… a custom Zen cart template, that is

A couple of months ago, I was looking for a designer to give my eBay store a complete overhaul. I was lucky enough to find Ellie at LillyStar Designs. I didn’t really have much of an idea for what I wanted, except a cartoon dog picture I had fallen in love with.

She is just amazing! Ellie did such a great job of redesigning my eBay store and listing templates, I asked her to design a matching Zen Cart template for my main website. Again… absolutely brilliant! Ellie did all of the graphic design and I did all of the coding for the site.

Since then, we’ve emailed back and forth a few times and decided to collaborate on Zen Carts going forward. Ellie will design and create the graphic elements for Zen, and I will provide the coding to turn it into a custom Zen Cart template. I will be putting together a portfolio page for potential customers to view sites we’ve worked on together.

For more information on getting your own custom Zen Cart template, visit Ellie’s eBay store: LillyStar Designs. Her price list is here. Templates begin at $470.00, which is very reasonable for a one of a kind design.

In the meantime, here are screenshots of her work on my eBay store and our Zen Cart work. Click on the thumbnails for a larger image.

	KT Pet Supply on eBay Design and Coding by LillyStar Designs
	KT Pet Supply Graphic Design by LillyStar Designs Custom Zen Cart template by Creative Compulsion
	babeSKIN Graphic Design by LillyStar Designs Custom Zen Cart template by Creative Compulsion

I admit it, I’m hopelessly addicted to Wii MarioKart, or as I like to say, MarioKart Wheeee!

This stunning realization hit me a couple of weeks ago, when I was driving home. I suddenly had the urge to run over the car ahead of me. Not that this thought has never occurred to me before, but I’ve realized that road rage reaches a whole new level as a MarioKart addict.

I’m not a video game kind of person these days. Back in my early twenties, Sega Genesis was popular. My ex-husband and I would spend hours playing Sonic the Hedgehog. Loved that game. But, ever since then, no video game has been able to hold my interest for long.

We have an XBox, PlayStation 2 and the Wii. I guess it’s a result of getting older, but I’m just not coordinated enough anymore to do well on most of the games. That all changed with MarioKart.

It all started about a month ago, when my boyfriend bought MarioKart. He thought it was pretty cool, so he surprised my daughter and I by buying us the game with 2 Wii wheels. And, the insanity began.

There’s just something so cool about running down fellow motorists, bombing race tracks, being able to cause lightning strikes and pop golden mushrooms for a speed boost. The best part is being able to play online, so that you can extend your passive-aggressiveness beyond your own living room to the entire world.

An important tip I can pass on, please be sure to secure small animals and children, and close all windows and doors prior to playing the game. I don’t typically swear, but I’ve discovered a whole new vocabulary as a result of this game. See, it’s not just addicting, but educational, too! Yeah, I’ll keep telling myself that.

All in all, I would highly recommend becoming a MarioKart addict. It’s fun, it kills some time and, if you’re good, your kids will be impressed with your video game prowess. Just remember to use that road rage only for the game!

I’m having some guilt pangs over my new eBay return policy. Maybe I’m being too strict.

As I noted in the above referenced post, my return policy has always been a 30 day money back guarantee. Since the changes in May, for some reason, I’m experiencing a much higher rate of return requests. Prior to the changes, I would get a request once every couple of months. Now, it’s more like one or two a week.

In light of this, I adjusted my return policy to state that I will now consider returns on case-by-case basis and, generally, won’t accept a return for opened and/or used items. In other words, you can’t try it and decide you don’t like it. Bear in mind, I sell new in the box pet supplies, not used or refurbished items.

My biggest sellers are dog training collars. It’s a bit frustrating to get an item back that is covered in dog hair, or worse, chewed up or muddy. Since I can obviously not resell a collar like that, I lose a lot of money by taking them back. Even items that are clean, but used, can no longer be sold as new. Again, I lose money.

I realize that places like PetCo will take back an item for any reason. But, their markup is much higher, so the return rate is covered within their profit margins. One of the great things (I think) about eBay, is the ability to “find a deal”. I offer my products at the lowest price allowed by the manufacturers.

So, I really don’t have the cost to cover returns built into my price. Now, on my website, I do accept returns for any reason within 30 days. But, I don’t have the overhead (ie. FVF, listings fees, not to mention time spent on CS) that I do on eBay.

To paraphrase one seller at the eComm conference last February, you can’t offer Nordstrom’s customer service at Wal-Mart prices. I agree… just can’t be done.

OTOH, I want happy customers. Customers that are happier living with their pets, and that will return again, if they need anything in the future. Where is the happy medium?

I’m struggling with my desire to be a great retailer and the need to pay my bills, lol. Have I gone overboard with my policy or am I inline with other eBay sellers?

Thoughts appreciated!

eBay announced a listing sale today. 25¢ fixed priced listings from now until July 29th.

I’m so happy! Since all of my listings are fixed price to being with, and my average listing fee is $2.00 - $3.00, this will save me a bundle.

Some people are speculating that this sale is to boost listings in light of the new Finding 2.0 being rolled out. I really don’t care, as long as it saves me some cash. Things had slowed down a bit in June and are now beginning to pick up again. This sale makes it that much better.

Have fun listing!

A couple of changes were announced yesterday that would make it appear that eBay is actually listening to “the noise” created by eBay sellers angry with the recent changes.

Feedback is being changed once again. As of May 19th, neutral feedback began to be counted as a “negative” in calculating sellers’ feedback percentages. Many sellers, including myself, thought this was ridiculous. After all, neutral means, ummm… neutral. Not good, not bad.

Effective in late August, they are rolling back this change. According to an announcement made by Lorrie Norrington, neutrals will once again not be counted:

Recalculating Feedback percentages without neutrals: Effective in late August, neutrals will no longer be counted as part of the Feedback percentage. This means we will be recalculating Feedback percentages retroactively for users worldwide. In the interim, no one will lose their PowerSeller status as a result of neutrals being included in their Feedback percentage.

Read the rest of this entry »

Over the last 6 months, eBay has made some major changes, with more changes expected in the coming months. How has this affected me? Honestly, not a whole lot. I still hear the occasional rumblings of a boycott and sometimes read forum posts about how evil eBay is. Maybe I just got lucky, or maybe I just don’t subscribe to any particular conspiracy theory or Chicken Little mentality.

Am I crazy about some of the changes? No. But here’s what I’ve done in response.

Fees
Back in February, eBay made several changes to it’s pricing structure. Essentially, front end fees went down and back end fees went up. I like to call it Amazonification. This was actually a good thing for me, particularly with respect to the free gallery change. I used gallery on everything prior to the changes, so my fees actually decreased monthly.

Rumor has it more fee changes are on the horizon. Insertion fees are expected to be decreased even more as a way to promote fixed price listings. This would also work well for me. I sell only FP and Store Inventory.

Feedback
Now this is the one that irritated me. As of May 19th, sellers were no longer able to leave anything but positive feedback for buyers. Honestly, I agree with the majority here, this was an ill-thought out policy change and creates just as many problems as it purports to fix.

Read the rest of this entry »

It’s been a busy afternoon for those who pay attention to the goings-on at eBay.

The rumors have now been confirmed and it’s official: Meg Whitman will be retiring as CEO of eBay effective March 31st. She will stay on as Director. Slated to take Meg’s place is John Donahoe, who currently runs the Marketplace division. Announced in the same article is eBay President Bill Cobb’s retirement which will take place later this year. What remains to be seen is whether this is a positive or negative change.

Also taking place tonight was the Q4 2007 earnings call. Of interest to sellers was the announcement that a new fee structure will be introduced sometime next week that will cut fees on auctions and fixed price listings. It’s assumed that eBay will also begin advantaging sellers with lower shipping and a good customer service record (remember those DSRs!).

Should be interesting…I’m still reserving judgment until I see the new fees. While many sellers are still moaning about the store fee increase of 2005, many of us simply adjusted our business plans to either make it work and/or began venturing to other sales channels. So far, the eBay boards seem pretty upbeat about the news tonight. Nice to see for a change

For a great synopsis of tonight’s call, visit Scot Wingo’s eBay Strategies Blog.

Yes, I admit it. I let my blog suffer a slow, torturous near-death the last couple of months. Christmas kind of snuck up on me and before I knew it, I was knee-deep in work and no time to myself. It hasn’t changed too much; things are still fairly busy, but at least I’ve been able to catch my breath.

Some interesting things going on in the near future at eBay. Scot Wingo confirmed on his blog the other day that eBay has been “telegraphing some big changes coming to the fee structure“. A couple of the ideas being tossed around are category-specific fees and bulk listing discounts. Scot also reintroduced his “3F” approach to cleaning up eBay, proposing that fraud and finding need to be cleaned up prior to a fee adjustment. I couldn’t agree with him more. My guess is… NOT gonna happen.

Further speculation regarding the new fee structure is that eBay will lower listing fees (and include free or lower cost gallery) and increase the backend (FVF) fees. I guess I’ll reserve my opinion until the adjustments are announced. My guess is that this will be a boon for some sellers and a death toll for others. What I can’t wrap my head around is the whining that is already taking place on the eBay boards. Do these people just like to complain?

Listen folks, if you’re not willing to adapt your business to the changing times, economy, market, etc., etc., then perhaps sales/business isn’t the career for you. By adapt, I don’t even mean adapting to sell on eBay. If eBay has priced themselves out of the market for you, explore your alternatives. Be ready to do some work and research. If you’re not willing to be flexible and change/adapt your business plan to remain competitive (or afloat!), then you really should consider a regular 9-5er with a dependable paycheck.

I realize eBay is no longer the only “show in town”, but if you’ve ever run a B&M and seen the numbers that flow through on a monthly basis, you’d have to agree that it’s still a pretty decent bang for your buck. No matter what, the expected announcement next week should prove to be interesting (if nothing else, entertaining!).