Last year, Tamebay put together a guide that brought together all the various tools and services out there that will help any ecommerce SME streamline and grow their enterprise. This year, we’ve drawn together even more invaluable tools and services that will help anyone who wants to make more from online sales.

Even we’re surprised by how much the sector has grown in a year: the 2012 guide is bursting with bright ideas and brilliant tools and services. Literally hundreds of services are out there to help make your life easier and your business more lucrative. They’re all in the guide.

Thank you to every Tamebay reader who made suggestions on what should go in the guide (too many to note here!) and thank you to our advertisers. Their support means we can make this guide available free of charge to everyone.

The high-res PDF version is available now. That’s ideal for computer reading and use. You can also easily use it on your Kindle or e-reader. Print versions and other formats will be available shortly. Let us know what you need.

We know you won’t be shy about sending us feedback. So do let is know what we need to do to make the 2013 guide even better. As always, we’re all ears.

To snag a copy you’ll have to sign up to The Wholesale Forums, but it’s free and as a bonus you’ll get access to a whole load of insider knowledge on the best and most reliable wholesale suppliers around. Then just add a comment to the thread on The Wholesale Forums telling them why you’d like a copy and which part of your business you’d like to simply. Free membership and maybe if you’re lucky a free copy of TameBay’s guide – can’t be bad!

If you’ve already got a copy of the guide then it’s still worth signing up to The Wholesale Forums as a great source of supplier information, and look out in January for the updated and expanded 2012 edition of the guide.

eBay and Ecommerce Tools & Services Guide 2012

The 2011 edition was a phenomenal success. More than 5000 copies were downloaded from TameBay (such was the demand, the site went down for a while: but we’ve fixed that now!) and several hundred print copies were circulated. Our aim in 2012 is to build on the 2011 guide and compile something bigger, better and more comprehensive that’s ready for launch in January 2012.

If you want to reach small and medium sized online businesses and other ecommerce professionals, then the eBay & Ecommerce Tools and Services Guide from TameBay is a unique opportunity to talk about your products and services to a highly targeted audience.

You’ll be in great company. Last year we counted respected brands like Alibaba, Channel Advisor, Terapeak and Tradebox amongst the contributors and this year we hope you’ll join them and dozens others.

How to make certain your business is in the 2012 guide

We’re aware that there were many new tools and services released in the last year and we want to make sure that your business is highlighted in the 2012 guide. We also know that many developers recently attended the X.Commerce Innovate Developer Conference and are in the process of building the next generation of ecommerce applications; if that’s you we’d love to include your new applications in the 2012 guide as well.

If you would like your business to be featured in the 2012 guide we need to know by the 19th December 2011. To make sure that you’re featured in the 2012 guide and for content format requirements send an email to chris@tamebay.com.

Yes, that’s right, we popped by the British Library in London on Monday to deposit a copy of the 2011 Tamebay Tools and Services Guide in to the national collection. Mostly because we could.

We’ll be starting work on the 2012 edition shortly. So keep ‘em peeled for more details.

Over the years both Sue and I have used numerous tools to simplify the running our our eBay businesses to save time, money and simply to make eBay’s processes manageable. We’ve also spoken to hundreds of friends and colleagues and collected together every current eBay tool in one volume.

It’s always been a source of frustration that some of the best tools aren’t publicised well enough. I still remember when long time TameBay reader Northumbrian suggested we take a look at Packing Partner and since then I’ve used the tool daily to produce my ecommerce invoices.

Now we’ve collected every eBay tool and service we know together in one guide along with over 35 product reviews. Many of the tools in this guide are little known apps which can make a huge contribution to the way you run your eBay business. Others are better known, but you may not have had time to fully investigate the products and services they offer. Whether it is a utility to make printing your labels and invoices automatic, or a fully fledged multi-channel ecommerce management platform you’ll find what you’re looking for in the guide.

We’d like to thank all of the companies who have supported us in creating this guide, the many people who support us with content for the site, Dan Wilson for the original suggestion that we should launch TameBay and most importantly of all, you and all our many other thousands of readers who visit TameBay, comment on TameBay and who have made the site what it is today.

The book is available both in print editions and in eBook version and the TameBay eBay Tools and Services Guide 2011 is available immediately for free download from TameBay. You can also buy the print version from Amazon and all good bookshops.

Press Release

It’s the 7 Link Challenge, a bit of fun from Problogger today, to highlight some old posts.

Sue

• Your first post: Try Gallery Plus for half price was my first on TameBay, though not my first blog post by a very long way.
• A post you enjoyed writing the most: Outlets, outlawed : what I’d do with eBay, part 1 (generally, the rantier the post, the more I’ve enjoyed writing it).
• A post which had a great discussion: Dear eBay, may I please get on with selling now.
• A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written: Dan’s post Home Truths for eBay Sellers.
• Your most helpful post: hardly for me to say, but I was pretty pleased with Using voucher codes to bring shoppers to your website.
• A post with a title that you are proud of: it would be a bad pun one: Court talks scents in trademark case or maybe Watch theft whine of The Times.
• A post that you wish more people had read: It’s time to stop disputing unpaid items (specifically, I wish some people from eBay had read it).

Chris

• Your first post: eBay University – Exeter
• A post you enjoyed writing the most: Without a doubt it’s the post that Sue forbade me to write and Sue is still amazing.
• A post which had a great discussion: There’s nothing like a bit of PayPal bashing to get people interested (and eBay/PayPal eventually lost this fight).
• A post on someone else’s blog that you wish you’d written: Scot Wingo‘s same store sales posts always have lots of fun data to play with: I’d like that.
• Your most helpful post: Actually a series of three – Best Match Secrets Part 1: Getting found, Part 2: How products are sorted and Part 3: 5 Top Tips for Best Match
• A post with a title that you are proud of: Tazbar an eBay alternative is long since dead and buried, but I wish I’d used the text of the post itself as the title and the video is superb (For those that don’t know eBay had a “Whatever it is you can get it on eBay” campaign running at the time
• A post that you wish more people had read: How I increased my P&P DSR by 2 points Figuring out how to play the game and work with the changes eBay throw at us is a pain, but it’s the only way to survive

Image credit: photo credit: Urban Woodswalker

photo credit: Duchamp

Some time over the last few days, my PowerSeller badge vanished. I’ve had it for exactly a decade, although I must admit for the last few months, it’s been a statistical anomoly based on high sales early last year: I haven’t deserved it because I stopped selling on my own account more than six months ago. Because – bear with me, chums; the confessional is coming – I’ve done something I swore I’d never do again. I’ve got a job.

This post is going to be a little more personal than what I normally write on TameBay. If you’re not interested, here’s the summary: nothing much is changing, some stuff’s changing a bit. We’ll still have eBay news, but we’ll have more general ecommerce stuff too. Move along, nothing to see here.

Okay. Now we’ve got rid of those people… I’ve got a job. It happened by accident (not the first job I’ve got by accident, not to mention the job I got for a bet). The friend of a friend of a guy I know on Twitter phoned me up and asked if I would like to spend one day a week writing blog posts for him. And even though I knew nothing at all about the industry he’s working in (it’s nothing to do with marketplaces), I said yes. I think there are times in life when you just need to run round saying “yes” to everything, to see where it takes you.

Where it took me was somewhere that rapidly expanded to two days a week – will you write guest content for other people for us, and yes, some of it is actually in print. Seeing my words in print, even with someone else’s name on them, gives me more joy than I can ever really express. And then, will you do a third day, looking after random bits of marketing and Twitter… When you get to three days, it just slides into a full-time job because no one else ever remembers which are the days you’re not supposed to be working for them, and so you start getting included in business development discussions and recruitment, and you get business cards with “Marketing Manager” on them, and all sorts of weird things that you swore you’d never do again.
Because you were never going to work *for* anyone again.

As Mrs Connery famously said, never say never again. It’s actually quite fun, and to skip from “full-time at home” to “full-time in the office” was easier than I’d ever have imagined, especially when I work for someone who thinks it’s entirely reasonable to say “I can’t write in here today, I’m taking my laptop to the park”.

I knew the day would come when my PS badge would disappear. I remember how much I wanted to win it, those first few fun months selling on eBay in 2000: how I’d felt getting it was some form of validation… How I’ve worn it ever since, at first proudly and then increasingly as a badge of solidarity with people who were being dumped on from a great height. Now it’s gone. I’d expected to feel sad, but largely, I feel nothing. I’ve moved on.

I don’t intend to turn into one of those ex-eBay PSs who hang around eBay forums and talk about how great the escape is. I quit selling because better things came along, more exciting challenges, bigger rewards. It’s a positive thing for me, and I’m not going to let it turn into a negative thing for anyone else.

So where does this leave TameBay? Obviously, I’m not in a position to write about the intricate nitty gritty of how site changes affect sellers. I’ll leave that to Chris (who, let’s be honest, is better at that stuff than just about anyone any of us know). I’m still going to be writing about eBay the company because with ten years of watching them, I think I can bring perspective to what they’re doing. But I’m hoping to use my new experiences to write about things that will be useful beyond just eBay. At the moment, I’m thinking about email marketing, and social media marketing, and Google Analytics, and how partnerships with your competition can increase the size of the cake for everyone, and whole rafts of thoughts about websites and what to do with them… And, of course, about life beyond eBay and where you can go if you’ve had enough of selling.

We say frequently around here that sellers should be looking beyond eBay for their businesses. I hope I’m going to be able to bring some useful thoughts about the ecommerce world outside eBay to TameBay. If not, well, I’m sure you’ll let me know.

It was the 11th November 2006 while Sue and I were having a conversation with the social media genius Dan Wilson that he said the fateful words “You guys should have a blog” – From there TameBay was born. At the time Sue and I didn’t really know what to expect, certainly not a million visitors. I can still remember the excitement when the first readers started to log on and when someone left the first comment. From there the site came alive and grew to be more than just Sue and me, but included you.

It’s TameBay’s 3rd Birthday next week, so for all those readers out there, those that have commented and those that just visit the site, read and quietly leave again, Sue and I would just like to say “Thank you for visiting, you’ve helped make TameBay what it is today”.

I’m house-sitting. I may have a party on the quiet one night (bring a bottle btw) but I’m not rearranging the furniture and if anyone wants to vandalise the valuable ancestral portrait by the fire, I’ll be jolly cross. Chris and Sue are the guv’nors. I’m keeping this place ticking over, watering the plants, feeding the cats, sorting the post, putting out the rubbish.

And I guess I should be honest:

- I’m a bit out of touch. The latest eBay developments may well have passed me by. I’m getting back up to speed, but I will appreciate background and extra briefings. I may not get the nuances. Be patient.

- I like good humour. Generous behaviour, funnies, intelligent debate and clever insight work for me. I hate stuck records. Say something new. It’s fun.

- I’m not a professional eBay seller. I’m a businessman, sure. But not a retail seller like most of you. I make a living by doing lots of different things: writing, consulting, jobbing. I’m not employed full-time by anyone.

But most of all: if you have something to say, why not go for broke and suggest a story? I’m not saying every suggestion will be a goer, but why not express your views? Contact TameBay in the usual way and I guarantee I’ll reply to every serious suggestion.

I’m looking forward to it. Business as usual. But a bit different. Welcome all.

Both the domain name and the site may be a little erratic today, as we are moving servers. I apologise for any inconvenience this causes anyone. I’m also aware that avatars are not working on the forum…

If TameBay isn’t enough for you to stay in touch, here are some other ways to keep up to date with what’s happening at Live:

• point your RSS readers at the eBay Live 2008 Yahoo Pipe I just made, aggregating lots of feeds from bloggers who will be there, including eBay’s official coverage
• watch the Flickr group which will have photos from Live (assuming I defy tradition and remember to take my camera lead)
• lovely Monique reminds us that Friday’s keynote and Saturday’s town hall will both be webcast

It’ll be almost like you’re there!

PS If anyone knows about the Twitter API and has ten minutes for me sometime today, I will shower you with gratitude and eBay swag/French chocolate…

We’ve listened to loads of our regular readers and what they want from the site and how they use it so you’ll notice things like featured posts which keep top stories on the front page for longer. The page is a lot shorter but you’ll still find the latest news stories in the center column, and there’s more space on the side to display you, our readers comments.

The navigation bars at the top will help you find the topics you’re interested in and of course the link to the TameBay forum.

As most of you know Sue and I jointly run TameBay, but what you may not know is that it’s Sue who does all of the techie stuff behind the scenes. It’s taken her many many hours of work to create the new site and the result speaks for itself.

Many thanks to all the readers who have let us know what you wanted from the site, but most of all a huge personal thanks from me to Sue, as she’s the one that has designed and built our fantastic new site.

So have at it. Normal rules around here apply: anything spammy or abusively sweary will be deleted.

And if you have more to say than just a question, pop over to the forum for help, a chat or a rant.

Please feel free to have a play with this function in the comments on this post If you have any problem with it, PLEASE PLEASE leave me a comment including what error message you got, if any, and exactly what you saw and how that differed from what you were expecting to see. Also let me know what browser you’re using. (Mac people, that goes double for you; my current Mac testing facilities are horribly out of date, so I’m relying on you )

As well as being a bit of fun, I know we have a few commenters on here who share the same name, so hopefully this might help distinguish between them! If you want to sign up, all you have to do is go to gravatar.com and upload your image. If you want your website logo or something commercial, that’s fine by us, but we do ask that your avatar conforms to a “PG” rating or lower.

And if you want to see how it looks, I’ll leave a comment below. Hope to see your avatar there too!

Update: Everything working *except* what happens when you leave a comment. The comment posts, but the pages don’t behave correctly..

No, apparently I made you feel shiny and new

I’m totally in awe of Sue. Most sellers on eBay that are Shooting Stars work for a company with employees, but Sue has packed every one of those 50,000 orders on her own. 10,000 separate customers have purchased five times each on average, and that’s a tribute to the service she gives.

I always think I know eBay pretty well, but Sue has ten times the experience that I do. I’m immensely proud to be her co-blogger and can’t thank her enough for the times she’s helped me over the years.

Sue has a truly amazing record on eBay, her repeat sales have long been the envy of many sellers, her feedback is outstanding, and 50,000 feedbacks is probably the highest number anyone has ever had at the time of achieving their Shooting Star.

I should point out that Sue forbade me from doing this post dismissing it with the comment “Feedback doesn’t pay the bills”. I’m probably in big trouble now but she deserves recognition for her fantastic eBay business, so…

Sue I salute you, you’re amazing!

We’ll be looking for thoughtful, insightful, passionate and/or funny pieces about any aspect of your eBay life or ecommerce in general. Though we don’t require you to be positive, we will ask that you’re rational: “eBay’s rubbish” won’t get published; “eBay’s rubbish and this is why” just might.

In return, we offer absolutely no money, but we will send as much traffic as we can your way.

If you’ve got something to say, then do mail Chris or myself (remove “REMOVE” from either address). We look forward to hearing from you.

The Small Print

The editors (that’s Chris and myself) reserve the right to edit for length and clarity. We reserve the right to refuse any submission. We will not accept anonymous submissions or requests for anonymous publication.

Thank you vzaar for a fantastic party!

Last night TameBay held their first Birthday Party in Manchester, following a great day at eBay University. I didn’t manage to count how many people turned up, but the bar was pretty full and it took about ten minutes to fight my way to the bar for my first drink. The venue was superb, Bar 38 is a fantastic venue for a party and top marks to Sue for finding such a great place close to the eBay University.

As well as loads of eBay buyers and sellers some eBay staff took the time to relax after a busy day. For those that know him MoggieX put in a surprise appearance, great to see him again after so long!

The raffle winners were delighted with their eBay related goodies, none more so than Karen from patterns*2*sew, who won the limited edition gold pin set from eBay Live! in Boston this year. Her son collects pins and she can’t wait to hand them over.

A real surprise was the birthday cake ChannelAdvisor were kind enough to make. Sue and I were both really touched by their kindness.

We’d like to thank everyone who came to the party, everyone who’s supported us and TameBay over the last year, but most especially Emma, Adrian and Dan from vzaar for putting on such a great event to celebrate our first year of blogging.

The venue is Bar 38 in Manchester, the date is 10th November, the time is 6.30pm onwards. TameBay will be providing drinks, some nibbles and a free to enter raffle with some great eBay-related prizes. If you’re after a coveted mug, this could be your chance.

The party is on the same day as the last eBay University of the year, so if you’re attending the Uni come straight over to the party afterwards. If you’re not going to the Uni just come to Bar 38 and make your way to the Mezzanine Floor which is reserved for TameBay.

Sue and I hope to see you there, and would like to thank vzaar who are our fantastic sponsors for the event.

The court case concerns whether a listing appears on the site the instant you click the submit button. The real answer is that it hardly ever does! It doesn’t matter how much computing power you have, it takes time to index ten million listings and to make sure every word, in every title, appears in default search results. It’s even worse when you consider how many words there are in a typical eBay listing, that have to be catalogued for “Title and Description” searches.

Now eBay do a pretty good job but even at the best of times it may be a couple of hours before your listing is correctly indexed. If you’re worried that your listing isn’t on the site you can search to make certain that it is. eBay have a facility to tell you exactly where you auction is, just enter the item number and select “Find location of item”.

Back to the court case, eBay are being sued because of the delay between submitting an auction and it appearing on the site. No one has been able to indicate just how this harms a seller, John Fabry, the Houston lawyer leading the prosecution when asked what actual harm is occuring avoided the question and instead talked about California’s strict auction laws. When asked what damages he hoped to win he simply said for eBay to either deliver the exact time period offered or to clearly explain there may be a delay before the auction appears on the site.

It seems trivial to me, there may be a delay until my auction appears in search results on the site but does it really matter? Suppose Fabry wins his case and eBay run all auctions to the second, I list at 8pm Sunday evening for seven days, there’s a delay of six hours so eBay tack six hours on the end to give me my full seven days – Do I really want my auction finishing at 2am Monday morning when all the bidders are asleep in bed? I think not!

Due to delays sellers will claim Fixed Price listings may have missed out on sales, which is a very valid point. Fixed price listings are a seperate matter and aren’t addressed by the current court case. The few hours delay at the start of an auction don’t in my opinion have any major impact as most bids come in the closing minutes. It’s at the end of an auction that visibility is critical.

There could be a case for eBay to make partial refunds or extend auctions where the delay is more than a couple of hours. Partial refunds (especially for auctions with low starting prices hence low insertion fees) would be negligable. Listing enhancements are not charged according to the length of an auction so no refund would be due. Extending an auction by a day may be a suitable option, but that in itself would cause problems – if Thursday evening is your best night for sales would you want your auction finishing on a Friday instead?

The best option for sellers is to list items knowing exactly when their auctions will end. Time them to maximise on buyers placing bids. Accept that there may be a delay and choose your start times accordingly, but don’t call for eBay to tamper with an auction finish time.

Listen Again will be available after 3pm.