This week in the Bloggosphere and beyond … short and sweet I’m afraid this week, so grab a demi-tasse (one of those miniature super-strength coffees the French seem to like), and a Jaffa Cake or two, and read what’s wrote …

Bloggosphere

The week started with a great bit or archival journalism by Henrietta over at RedInkDiary in which she exposed eBay’s PR department moving from a “We can do it” balanced staff of chiefs and indians, to an all-management plus outsource-to-agencies structure.  As we can all predict, this is a great way to control costs during economic downturns – not – and it even prompted Usher Lieberman (eBay mouthpiece) to attempt a sarcastic reply, captured and recorded for posterity by Henrietta.  Snigger.

A little bit of fun, but How much is your blog worth? This rather amusing little gadget displays your blog’s value based on links into it, using technorati’s link values.  It’s on Dane Carlson’s Business Opportunities Weblog.  I’ll not say who’s blogs I tried it for – just being nosy of course Note that Dale himself admits it’s nothing really more than link bait to get you to provide a back-link to his blog – sneaky – I like it!

Blog quote of the week

Not had a lot of time to catch up on the blogs this week – been rather distracted with offline journalism jobs (see World Affairs below – Gaz took care of them online), thus I’m afraid there’s no Quote of the week- maybe you could add yours in the comments?.

Discussions & Forums

Randy Smythe posted a piece called “The world finally understands” pulling together subject matter from assorted blog and news pieces regarding the recent Nielsen reports on eBay traffic and visitor numbers (see Online Channels below).  The comments from that post turned into a really useful and educating discussion, with some big names and very savvy less-well-knowns pitching in.  I thoroughly recommend everyone pop across – read the original post and all the comments.

One thing that occurred to me about 3/4 of the way through, during the flea market v large sellers part of the debate, was a veritable “Ping” of realisation about where JD and Co have based decisions on faulty data over the last two years.  Given that eBay has evolved from a flea market to a channel for new branded goods – it takes a lot less work to create scam listings for hot items supposedly new and top branded (e.g. iPods) that it does for used and collectible items like crockery oddments and vintage knitting patterns.  Perhaps in attracting the box-shifters, eBay itself laid the foundations for all the woes the site and sellers now suffer from the fraud and con-artists image?

International

Gaz added a great “SNAFU or policy” post to the Buildaskill blog this weekend – Turbo Lister is telling sellers that PayPal is no longer an accepted payment method on eBay Malaysia and Philippines – I fell off my chair laughing when I first read it, as I thought he’d put together an “Advent Fool’s” gag.  But nope – it’s genuine.  Must remember to go nosy around their community boards to see how many other people noticed.

Money Matters

UK blogs and news sites for online sellers have been buzzing with the topic of the UK Chancellor’s Pre-Budget Report and the shift in VAT rates.  Pretty much all have covered the topic, including BuildaSkill, so I’ll not bother with links, though I would like to remind readers that the source of information for how it affects your business is the UK HMRC’s Detailed Guide for Vat-Registered Businesses (opens in .pdf format – Adobe Acrobat required), which covers the VAT rate changes.  Don’t expose yourselves to prosecution risks by following too much online chatter-advice, and that includes any guidance eBay may publish.

In related eBay and money news, the British newspaper The Guardian’s Tanya Cordrey proposed on Tuesday that eBay and subsidiaries are ripe for takeover.  “Over the years, eBay has become a collection of loosely connected companies … Little binds these diverse business interests together.  Once, eBay framed its vision in terms of communities, built on trust. But many commentators and users feel that current management do not value, or even understand, the power of online communities … Without the glue of community, these companies add little to each other. Indeed, the value of the component parts may now be greater than the whole. eBay is quickly becoming a prime acquisition target” Ms Cordrey stated in her feature article.

Word is certainly getting out into the mainstream media, and that will tickle the attention of stock market hawks and asset strippers, but will it get the attention and desire of a predator who could actually make good use of its prey?

Online Channels & Venues

Ina at AuctionBytes has been running some special insights into the traffic and visitors battle between Amazon and eBay.  Instead of using the usual public stats sites, she’s gone with Nielsen Online (the people who performed the big user satisfaction survey for eBay Oz recently), which adds elevated credibility to the numbers presented.  Her first piece appeared week before last, regarding unique visitors to Amazon and eBay in October 07 & 08.  The latest piece appeared Tuesday, and concerned topics such as visitor time on site and varying end date for pre-Xmas peaks.  Well worth reading.

Suppliers & Services

Again at AuctionBytes, Ina has been investigating the growth of mega-sellers on eBay in the Diamond PowerSeller levels, and the inventory management tools now available for them.  How does it make you feel that these big guns are now getting the same style of tools used by the little vendors, but designed for mass site-flooding?

World Affairs

I don’t think anyone can have missed the events in Mumbai and Bangkok this week.  My condolencesgo out to all those who lost loved ones in Mumbai, and my sympathy to the 100,000+ who are stranded in Thailand due to the airport siezures by anti-government protestors.  Gaz has been blogging about the situation in Thailand on the Expat Eye blog.

Looking Ahead

I have an airport or two to visit – but they’re closed to air traffic … hmmm needs some clever scheming this does.

Ed