Hello Everyone!
Thank you for attending the eBay Blogs, Reviews and guides workshop! You can find the eBay Blogs homepage at Link and the eBay Reviews and guides website at Link. Reviews & Guides has now been live on eBay for a several months and we’ve had some excellent responses by eBay members! There are now thousands of reviews and guides on the website. Blogs have been around for about two months and judging from what we’ve seen have really struck a chord with the community. With this workshop we will start with a brief introduction / recap of Blogs Reviews & Guides, and end by answering as many of your questions as we can!
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com

How do Blogs Work on eBay?

Blogging on eBay is easy! Simply visit Link and click the big “Start Blogging” button! If you haven’t set up your blog, you will be asked to give your Blog an overall title, description and tags. Be creative and describe yourself, your interests, your store, etc.

Once you’ve done this – or if you’ve previously done it – you’ll be able to write a blog post. A post is simply an entry within your blog. Writing a post is easy – you can enter simple text, format your text, add links, or code the HTML by hand!
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com

How Do I Customize My Blogs?

Login and visit your blogs homepage – you should notice the module on the left column of the page titled “Owner Tools”. There you will see a link named “Customize”. From there you can choose your blog’s template or create your own CSS formatting.
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com

Hello,
Gald to be here

How will a blog help me be more successful on eBay?

Blogs are terrific ways to establish trust, showcase your personality and expertise, and attract new traffic to your eBay listings or store. A blog related to your eBay business or your collecting passion will enable others who are interested in these products to find and connect with you. Customers may look for blogs to find more detail about a seller, to see if the seller is offering a new line of merchandise (or to ask them to offer a new service), or to learn ideas for using or displaying a product. For instance, a seller of craft supplies might update their blog each week with instructions for a new craft project.

Additionally, a well-optimized blog that is optimized frequently may appear in internet search results for the subject you cover. This can work to your advantage even if you don’t talk about your products in your blog. If you sell computer parts, but your passion is fishing, a blog of “fish tales” may open up a large, new, base of customers for you who also love fishing and would love to buy their upgrade parts from a fellow angler.
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com

How are blogs different from Reviews & Guides

Reviews & Guides is an interactive platform on eBay for users to share opinions and expertise on any product or topic. We are so excited about eBay Reviews & Guides because it enables users to communicate with one another – whether buyers, sellers or just active community members – or, whether you’re looking to research a particular movie or share your expertise about a specific topic or idea – Reviews & Guides is the place to do it.
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com

What’s the difference between Reviews and Guides?

Reviews are product based and area available for certain categories such as: books, cell phones, coins, digital cameras, golf clubs, movies, music, PDAs, video games and more. Each review is attached to a particular product and includes both a rating (1-5) and a text-based reviews. For instance, the “Forrest Gump” DVD will, over time, have a collection of reviews attached it – each review will have its own product rating and the DVD will have an overall rating that is an average of each individual user review. Reviews are a great way to learn about particular products before buying or to share your opinions and comments.

Each review has a “Was This Helpful” button beneath it. That button is used to sort the helpfulness of the reviews – over time, the most helpful reviews will be classified as “Top Reviews” and appear atop the page.

Whereas reviews pertain to specific products, guides enable writing across any topic or category. Wherever your interest or expertise resides, you can write a guide on any subject such as:

* How to Plan the Perfect Vacation
* Building the Ultimate 80s Music Collection
* The Best Xbox games of 2004
* All About iPods and iPod Minis

Guides also give you the ability to be creative in your design and formatting: writers can insert pictures, special formatting, eBay links, and headings. Like reviews, guides can be voted on by readers.
Nii
eBaynii@ebay.com