Announcements, eBay Tools, Education, Tools

eBay Desktop 1.0 Now Available

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I have been researching the application and waiting for the 1.0 final release, it’s a cool coincidence for it to come out at the same time Adobe Air 1.0 is out!

That’s from their blog:

eBay Desktop 1.0 is now available for download! This free application is an alternative to the eBay website – you can use it to search, browse, bid, keep track of your auctions — all the things you use the website for when you’ve got some money burning a hole in your pocket (or in your PayPal account).

The 1.0 release contains lots of bug fixes, performance enhancements, and small changes to features in response to user suggestions. We also recently released a beta including international support, and the 1.0 has lots of fixes that should make using eBay Desktop from all the international eBay locations much better.

eBay Desktop uses Adobe AIR, and we are synchronizing our 1.0 release with the 1.0 of AIR. The installer will take care of downloading both eBay Desktop and Adobe AIR, whether or not you have installed one or the other in the past.

We have worked on the project for nearly 2 years, and I am very pleased with the end result. We have lots more enhancements planned for the coming weeks and months, but this the most important milestone so far. The eBay Desktop team from Effective UI has worked incredibly hard on this, and I’d like to thank them all: Sean, Greg O., Greg C. Jason, and all the project alumni: thank you! And thanks to all the eBay members who have provided great suggestions, ideas, bug reports, and words of praise. I hope that we can continue to provide great user experiences that make the eBay marketplace more fun and dynamic, and help connect more individuals through the simple act of commerce.

I personally think that this tool will be great for buyers more than sellers on eBay, but with some practice on it, I think it will be a mini research tool for sellers.

Enjoy it.

General

Skype + Oprah Winfrey = something GOOD!

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skype-logo

Of course the new program will have over 500,000 visitors to oprah.com.

Heavy marketing 3 ways, on the TV show, on oprah.com and on Skype it self.

I first learned about this new program (First of it’s kind) from a sticker on the book, however it was not a surprise for me to learn that Oprah will be in a virtual online class (Aka webinar) and taking questions using Skype.

How many times did I tell people to start using Skype for all the good benefits that it has, of course it’s a very smart choice from Oprah’s team to choose my number one application for IM, VOIP phone or video conference, not to mention that I use it for all of my podcasts.

Skype is free to download and use, chat, speak or video your friends online for free computer to computer.

As an added bonus (I love this toy) you can pay a very low one time fee of $35 and get Skype pro, which will allow you to call regular phones whether land lines or cell phones unlimited for one year to the U.S. and Canada (If you’re calling from the U.S.) and so far I have used the phone service for 2 years now and can’t tell you how good and pure the voice quality is.

To download Skype and enjoy it’s free services click below:

 

Also some very useful services with Skype is the ability to send one of your contacts money instantly, thanks to the seamless integration with  PayPal, it’s as easy as click on menu next to your contact then click send PayPal and enter the $ amount.

Also Skype is on (Already available in Beta) a new service called Skype premium, the service allow users to get paid by users for voice consulting by the minute. For example, I offered SEO consulting for $2.25 a minute, my client found my service on Skype and called me, Skype deduct the amount instantly per minute and sent me my money instantly after the call was done (Minus a 20% service fee) and the money was in my PayPal account within 20 seconds. How cool was that?

There is so many benefits for using Skype but for now you can use it to talk face to face to Oprah for free!

Hey, make sure to add me when you get Skype by clicking here after you install Skype, or just search for my name: guruofsales or just click on the call me button found on the right sidebar of this page.

Advertising, Marketing

Super Bowl marketing part 1 of 2

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I have been berried in writing (And I am not complaining, but actually love it) since my publisher (for some strange reason) pushed my deadline by 2 months, so I had to triple the amount of words I type every day, and that’s why it took me a while to write this article. Better late than never I guess. 😉

So I decided to approach the massive marketing behind the Super Bowl in a new way. Here is how I watched the Super Bowl as a marketer:

I looked at the ads and the marketing strategy for Fox 5.

I will skip most of the ads I didn’t like and compress it to savor your reading.

“Road to the Super Bowl” was boring if you are a true football fan and seen it all, then why the replay?

However Fox is once again showing us how heavy they advertised the Super Bowl Throughout the season, remember that’s over $170 millions in about 4 hours, plus all the promotions about foxsports.com and some of the Fox 5 channel programs with all the ad revenue coming from it.

First ad that grabbed my attention was the Super Bowl ad itself, or should I call the opening credits?

Fox bringing their own Ryan Seacrest to what they called the first ever Super Bowl red carpet! A nice twist to adding a Hollywood spirit to the game.

Interviewing big names like: Samuel L. Jackson, John Travolta, Laurence Fishburne and Hugh Laurie.

Then announcing the performances by: Alicia Keys, Paula Abdul w/ Randy Jackson (A quick reminder from Fox to watch their American Idol program) and Sara Evans w/ Willie Nelson.

Followed by a clip from Google earth zooming in on the Super Bowl stadium. Very nice.

Most of the pre-game show ads were relatively good, mostly, State Farm Insurance (A big sponsor for the event). Other than that it was all ordinary ads.

A semi official marketing analytics by Fox about the Super

Actual game ads:

When I ask someone why do you watch the Super Bowl? Most people answer: The funny ads.

Again another reminder about American Idol by having Jordan Sparks singing the national anthem. And also the great and sexy performance by Paula Abdul and Randy Jackson… To be continued…

Continue the storyline in part 2 of this article.