News and Announcements
EBay is experiencing less fraud, according to the company, due to new security measures launched last year. Changes to the Buyer Protection Plan and the hotly debated user ID masking for higher value items (see eBay Watch: ID Masking Rebuked) are helping to mitigate bogus "second chance" and counterfeit listings in the categories most favored by scammers. In other security news, eBay announced listing delays on specific items that tend to be favored by fraudsters.

Affected listings will be viewable on the site through a users' "My eBay" or by searching for the listing number; however, they will not be immediately visible through a keyword search or by browsing. The criteria for qualifying listings is being kept secret to prevent scammers from being able to use that information to work around the security measures.

New eBay Services and E-Commerce Tools Round-Up
Pixilive announced its new photo and video hosting service, aimed at those needing image storage for MySpace, eBay, blogs, and other Web pages. The service supports a variety of popular formats, and, image file sizes of up to 5MB and up to 10MB for video files. Pixilive is a free service that does not require users to register before uploading files.

If you've been considering signing up for Shipping Sidekick, by Webplus, Inc., now is a good time to do so because the company is currently offering a free scale to Gold and Platinum members. Shipping Sidekick compares the rates and delivery time of various shipping companies once you enter the weight and destination of your package.

Based on the power of word-of-mouth marketing, PowerReviews, Inc. launched a consumer shopping research portal called Buzzillions.com. It provides customer reviews for every product on the Web site, with most contributed by users of the product. The "Affinity Recommendations and Reviews" feature provides shoppers with recommendations from other shoppers within the same affinity group. For example, novice photographers can read digital camera reviews from other novice photographers and professional photographers can use the reviews written by other professionals as a guide.

Eye on the Little Guy: Listing Titles — Maximize Your 55 Characters
Do an eBay search for just about anything and you will certainly see some sellers using attention-grabbers like "WOW" or "L@@K!!!" in their auction titles. Since eBay allows a maximum of only 55 characters with which to title your listing, we recommend you use them wisely. Those 55 characters should be comprised of the most relevant keywords that you can think of to match phrases buyers will be entering into the eBay search box — and not many people are going to be typing "L@@k."

Attention grabbers may possibly help your listing stand out on a search results page, if all the titles are quite similar. The problem is that standing out isn't going to help if your use fewer keywords means your listing is shown less frequently in search results. Another drawback to using these characters involves search engine indexing. In the process, they are usually replaced with a space, making their usage even more completely pointless in your item title. (Note that the same is true for the keywords on your Web pages and other item titles outside of eBay.)

So, what should you do when composing your listing title? Begin by using the most basic and obvious keywords that match the item you are selling. You might be selling a "vintage timepiece," but really, it is a watch, first, and more buyers will be searching for "watch" compared to "timepiece." It would be the same thing for that great pair of loafers you want to sell. "Shoes" will be the more popular keyword, so that keyword should have priority in your listing title over "loafers." It is common for buyers to search for specific items with a description, such as "blue shoes" or "3T dress" or "silver Nintendo DS," so other good choices for types of keywords to include in your listing title are brand names, a color or a size. You really want to include as many relevant keywords in your listing title as possible. It's also important to remember that even if your main keyword (such as shoes or dress) appears in the eBay category name you are listing under, you still need to include those important keywords in your listing title if you want to generate hits from searches.

Here is an example of one auction title I recently spotted on eBay. "Nintendo DS LITE CORAL PINK NEW GAME SYSTEM CONSOLE." You can see this seller used very relevant keywords for the entire title — and it worked — as this was at the top of several best match results in different DS and console game searches.

You can also make the most of your 55 characters by dropping little words from your title, including "and," "if" and "the." Eliminate enough of those from your title and you will have enough characters to include a whole new keyword in their place. Remember, your title does not have to read as a grammatically correct sentence. If your item is brand new, or never used, or has another attribute that can be used as a selling point, you can also save precious characters by using common auction abbreviations in the title to describe its condition instead of using the full words (see Webopedia's Auction Lingo Reference for help with auction abbreviations).

eBay Trends
This week "Apple iPod" overtakes the PS3 for third place in the top eBay search terms. Searches for "wii"and "Xbox 360" remain in the top three list this week. For sellers with cell phones, smartphones, PDAs and accessories to list, here is a snapshot of several related eBay categories and their corresponding top three searches in each for April 12, 2007:

• Cell Phones & PDAs: Cingular, Verizon and Nokia.
• Cell Phones & PDAs> Bluetooth Wireless Accessories: Bluetooth, Motorola bluetooth and Bluetooth headset.
• Cell Phones & PDAs> Phone & SIM Cards: cell phones, cell phone and Cingular.
• Cell Phones & PDAs> Wholesale & Large Lots: Motorola, Nextel and cell phones.

Only on eBay...
Some love him, some hate him, and some vote for him just because its obvious that Simon doesn't think too much of his singing abilities. Whatever the reason, this year's American Idol contender Sanjaya Malakar is getting the press, the best buzz and for those who do love him, you're also going to love our favorite IT for this week.

Sing it Sanjaya: This doll is apparently the work of Idol hands.

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