When I first started my eBay business, I had no idea what I was doing or what to expect. Over the last year I have learned so much and have come to depend on the income that I have generated for myself. There are definite ups and downs to the sales, and sometimes I get a little discouraged when they are down for a long time. But it seems like right when I hit the worst point, where I feel like I haven’t sold anything for a long time, I will have a boom in sales.

Sometimes I will go two weeks with hardly anything and then BAM, a week of non-stop sales! It can get frustrating, but if you plan it right you can set money aside from the good weeks and make up for the weeks that are a little slower.

In the meantime, to keep yourself from getting discouraged, during the downtime I can list all my old inventory, work on my store tune ups or tune upps as mom says) and get organized. Maybe even come up with a budget that takes into account the fluctuations in my income.

Whatever you do, don’t get into a negative mind set. This is just the normal curve of owning your own business. Keep up all the good work and wishing you happy sales this week!

The day began with an overview of discussion boards in general, then went into a brain storming session on what we would like to see changed, improved or kept the same about the eBay community boards. On this window are all our post it note ideas, topics and comments (all neatly arranged by Chris Taylor of Pagemage). We were a lively group and some of us were no longer using the boards, myself included, and others were “power” users.On the technical end, eBay is switching from LiveWorld to Lithium, this is the platform the forums are built on. Think of it as a plug in app for a wordpress site only super sized! You won’t see a lot of huge changes at first. There will be phases and in this first phase it will be sort of a make over of the looks. Better design and functionality. Do you have an Instagram account? hint hint… get one!

You will be able to pick out relevant answers to questions asked through a new Kudos system! (comparable to a Facebook like). Those who start a post will be able to “accept” answers that are helpful making it easier to get your questions answered.

You will get to make a profile page and have more control over your discussion board experience. Hopefully making users on the boards more personal and personable so people can really connect and get to know one another.

Moderation was a key topic and big concern and this is not being taken lightly by eBay I can assure you. Policies and rules will remain the same for the most part but rest assured the issues being brought up, especially by those no longer using the boards, are being heavily considered and there are weekly meetings between eBay and the moderation team. eBay wants you to be comfortable and feel free to post on the boards.

While this won’t be rolling out to the US site until about July, you can get a sneak peek later this coming week as it is launched in Canada. You can log in on the Canadian eBay site and test it out! Keep in mind it is a brand new platform and as such will probably have a glitch or a bug here or there. If you could send me what you see I can pass them on to the team. Send a screenshot, which browser you are using and a short summary of the glitch. I assure you they want this to be a smooth running, fun place for all!

I can’t reveal some of the cool future features that were discussed, but they actually have me leaning towards coming back to the boards and being part of the eBay site community once again. I hope you will join me.

Just one more thing… I have to tell you how totally impressed I was that John Donahoe, CEO of eBay Inc., took the time out of his day to come and listen to what we had to say. He got an earful I will tell you that much, and he took it in stride and was genuinely concerned about the issues we face as sellers on a day to day basis. I am excited and encouraged about the direction I see him taking eBay.

Ok really now just one more thing… On my flight to San Jose I had the great fortune of having an eBay employee take the seat next to me. He was the manager of the Global Data Centers for eBay. While my head was fairly exploding with techy talk by the time we reached our destination, I can tell you it was fascinating to learn that eBay spares no expense when it comes to their technology and making sure data is secure and that they are virtually crash proof. I can also tell you, there are NO rolling blackouts, it’s pretty impossible the way the system runs. I got to learn that eBay wants every employee to use the site, so I’ll be getting a call from Mike to help him get his wife’s cool collectibles listed

I’ll be talking about this more on the show Sunday night if you want to tune in live and ask questions!

---

Since there are no eBay events this year, why not book your spot for SCOE Philly? I can’t wait to see you there! Oh and use the code DANNI and get $100 off your registration!

---