News and Announcements
This week in eBay developments, the company shutters some promotion services, expands its international reach and enjoys Yahoo's bow out of the auction market. EBay announced that it is eliminating several cross-promotion features because they are not as effective as eBay's default logic in driving bids and purchases and aren't used much by sellers anyhow. First to go will be the Item Cross-Promotion Rules, used to decide what items appear in the cross-promotion display. In June, eBay will also be removing the Cross-Promotion Connections feature that allows sellers to promote other sellers' listings on their item pages.

In other news, eBay Inc. recently acquired a minority stake in GittiGidiyor.com, an online marketplace in Turkey. With more than 17 million Internet users (one quarter of Turkey's total population) the Turkish e-commerce sector is a highly attractive market for eBay. Terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

Meanwhile, Yahoo is closing its U.S. and Canada auction sites on June 16, with the the last day to list an item for sale June 3. According to Hitwise, in the week ending May 5, eBay Web sites (including eBay, eBay Motors and eBay UK and Canada) accounted for more than 94 percent of visits to the auction sites Hitwise monitors. Yahoo Auctions scored only .19 percent of all visits to those same sites.

Despite the numbers showing that Yahoo just can't compete with eBay, Yahoo has said eBay has nothing to do with their decision to shut down the auction site. They also announced that Yahoo Photos will close.

E-Commerce Tools Round-Up
RainWorx Software just released version 5.0 of its auction Web site package, called rwAuction Pro, that enables you to run your own marketplace. In addition to new administration features, there are also two new sale formats, Reverse Auctions and Request For Quotes. Both methods allow for products and services to be purchased for the lowest or best offer.

Early Impact integrated its ProductCart line of shopping carts with all payment options provided by PayPal. The updated integration with Website Payments Pro (Direct Payments) allows store managers to authorize, edit and then process multiple orders, directly from their ProductCart Control Panel. ProductCart shopping carts will include the Certified Integration with PayPal starting with version 3.1, available for $695 per storefront.

Tips from the Trenches: Blogging For eBay Sales
Since I finally opened my own eBay store, I've been looking for free (and easy) ways to get my profile and Store listings viewed. One of the biggest problems I've encountered with store listings is that unless I use an auction-style or fixed-price listing, these items are lost in the depths of eBay searches, or simply not shown at all. Last week I told you about eBay To Go, a utility that makes it easy to display your eBay items in a compelling way on other sites and pages. This week I'm going to talk about the benefits of using eBay blogs to promote your eBay listings.

When I first checked out eBay Blogs, I have to admit, I wasn't overly impressed. There are thousands of blog posts about every topic imaginable, with seemingly only a few having anything to do with eBay buying and selling. But, after I finally got a store opened, I decided to create my own eBay blog to help market my store .

One note of caution before I begin: EBay's main blog page is pretty straight-forward, showing the last 10 eBay blog posts made. Because so many eBayers are using blogs, this list is constantly changing, which leaves you a very short window of opportunity to have your posts noticed on the main eBay blog list page. The eleventh person to publish a post after you will force your post off the main page view.

Still, maintaining an eBay blog is easy, it doesn't take much time to add a post every so often, and you can work in your own style of eBay self-promotion within your blog posts. As an added bonus, any eBay member can start an eBay blog for free, and post as often as they like. Plus, it's a great way to gain exposure.

Keep in mind that you want anyone who is looking for information on something you sell to find your blog, which can be a doorway to your listings pages and send more traffic to your eBay auctions and store. When someone clicks to read your blog entries, they automatically also see your eBay user ID, Feedback number, the link to your Items for Sale, your eBay store link (where applicable) and "About Me" profile because they are shown at the top of the page.

When you create a blog, you will need to insert tags. These are basically the keywords you expect people to use when searching blogs, and ultimately, the ones that will lead them to your site. A good idea is to use many of the common keywords you use in your eBay listing titles (See eBay Watch: Make More Money by Maximizing Listing Copy).

Once you have a blog up and running, you also have a dedicated URL you can send members to, so it pays to advertise it in your eBay mailing lists and link to it from other online sites to build a dedicated reader group.

Another benefit of an eBay blog is that you can use it as a forum to show off your particular area of expertise pertaining to items you sell. It's also a good place to post "ending soon" item numbers and to ask for and receive advice.

Research and Trends
According to eBay Pulse data, this week we see the popular Webkinz stuffed toys move ahead of Wii, xBox 360 and the apple iPod as the most searched for keyword on ebay.com. Currently there are over 12,000 item listings for Webkinz. Here is a snapshot of several eBay categories and the corresponding top three searches in each for May 10:

• Musical Instruments: Bibson, Fender and Bogner.
• Musical Instruments > Percussion: Ludwig, Gretsch and Rogers.
• Home & Garden > Pottery Barn, Anthropologie and furniture.
• Home & Garden > Vacuum Cleaners & Housekeeping: Dyson, Rainbow and Kirby.
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories > Coach, Nike shoes and Gucci.
• Clothing, Shoes & Accessories > Infants & Toddlers: Gymboree, Ralph Lauren and Gap.

In other shopping trend news, online consumer electronics giant Tiger Direct reports it expects consumers to spend about $1.8 billion on consumer electronics and computer products for mom this year. Popular product categories such as digital cameras, digital photo frames and MP3 players currently top the list on TigerDirect.com for Mother's Day-related sales, followed by notebook computers, digital camcorders and flat screen TVs.

Hot Rod: Buy Mom a Viper instead of Violets. (Click for larger image.)

Only on eBay...
In honor of Mother's Day, we just couldn't pick only a single favorite IT this week. Those looking for a last-minute gift on eBay will find a plethora of Mother's Day auctions to suite any taste, style and budget. Seller 'my*own*treasures' is offering a 125-piece1917 Royal Albert Old English Rose Mother's Day dinner service set. This happens to be my own favorite Royal Albert pattern, but with the price tag of $9,849.99, I'm not going to be looking for it on Sunday. But I'm sure it would make the perfect Mother's Day gift for a very special Mom out there somewhere.

If baskets are your preferred gift, "endlesstreasuresonline" is offering a nautical-themed gift basket for $22.99, or what about a pretty pink spring tulip basket for $29.99?

Of course if you really want to make a roaring impact, a yellow Hennessey Venom 1000 Twin Turbo Viper SRT10 Coupe Viper would surely be a winning gift. For just $225,000, you can really make Mom smile on May 13.

In a follow-up to last week, according to the SFGate, our favorite IT last week, John Schneider's 1969 Dodge Charger from "The Dukes of Hazzard" was bid up to nearly $10 million, but, the auction was rife with fake bids. Schneider is quoted as saying he plans to list the car with a bricks-and-mortar auction firm and possibly file a lawsuit against the bidder who isn't paying up.

Have an interesting e-commerce tool, auction tip, auction or news item to submit for eBay Watch? Tell us about it!