The Whine Seller

So I got a note from Stephanie from Auctiva last week and it went to my spam bin which is why I only noticed it today (sorry about that!).

In light of my post about Auctiva’s sudden fee increases, I had written this post and Stephanie wrote to ask the following:

Hi Hillary:

So, we realize the error of our way and want to earn back the trust and confidence from our Community. Can I answer any questions or provide more information?

Stephanie

My answer? You didn’t really lose my trust, though I know I am not speaking for everyone as you did lose the trust of a lot of other people. Frankly, I’m not sure you ever had my trust to begin with as I always saw you as just a free service so my expectations (and therefore trust) in your service weren’t all that rock solid to start with.

But look at the note you wrote me. You want to earn back my trust so you want to know if I have questions? Asking me that implies I don’t understand your offer. Are you trying to earn back my trust by calling me stupid because I am not sure that is cool. I understand your offer just fine, I just liked it better when it was free. For others, they are feeling betrayed that this came so suddenly and was such a huge increase. All of the following statements would have earned you a little more of my trust than the above:

We want to earn back your trust so. . .

• we are going to take feedback from our valued members and reevaluate our pricing plans.
• we are going to extend an additional discount/free whatever to loyal long time members such as yourself.
• we are grandfathering you into some discounted rate or special extra feature that new members won’t get.

This isn’t a comprehension issue, Auctiva. If you were serious about winning back our trust, then you are already going about it a bad way. Appologize and then figure out how to make it right. That is going to involve more than answering questions.

But, you know, I wasn’t badly burned by the change. So let me turn this over to my readers. I know some of them are really ticked about the change and I also know that some are “eh” about it like I am.

What do you think Auctiva can do to earn back your trust or is it lost for good? (If you respond in your own blog, trackback this entry or post the link so we can see your reply.)

InRevTwitlin (BETA) Terrible name for a site. But a really great service.

I have complained about the new Twitter follow limits before. To recap, Twitter limits how many people you can follow based on how many people are following you. This wouldn’t be terrible if it weren’t for the fact that the follow to follower ratio are really close together so you can be within a hundred followers and still be cut off.

But I digress. The best tool I have found for handling this issue is InRev Twitln. This online tool lets you bulk manage your followers in ways that other tools are missing. The biggest downside to this tool is that they are not set-up with Twitter’s API so you have to give them your Twitter password which I don’t love. However, if you are willing to overlook this, they have some powerful tools.

The three tools they provide are: Read the rest of this entry »

People, lists are the new black. We are busy people, we like things short and sweet. We love a good list and our clicks prove it? But what is the appeal of the mighty list? Prepare yourself for a list. . . about lists.

1. 5 Reasons Why We All Click On Lists from tremendous news. A great starting point and a very funny look at what we all like about lists.
2. The Growing Popularity of Popularity Lists from The Wall Street Journal. This article takes a look look at the growing trend of lists in news sites and blogs.
3. How to Write Attractive and Helpful Content for Your Visitors. A useful article about structuring your blog post as a list and the article itself is, you guessed it, also a list. 
4. 5 Tips To Writing Quality Quick Posts. Some helpful tips about writing blog posts quickly, this article is not only a list but also gives tips for writing lists
5. Look at This Article. It’s One of Our Most Popular: Top-Ten Lists Abound Online, but Following the Herd Can Make You Wonder About the Wisdom of Crowds. Also from The Wall Street Journal, this article looks into the popularity of lists, particularly most popular or most read lists and their affect on what we read online.

Got another great list about lists? Go ahead and share the link with us below.

The discussion of whether to pay for a listing service or not that was started here and here brought up an interesting question: is a paid service always the “better” or more professional choice?

I have been running a successful eBay business for many years. Other than two brief months of eBay’s Selling Manager Pro (spread a year apart, one a free trial, the other a month of extra help at the holidays) I have never used a paid listing tool. In the same way, other than a painful 6 months with the demon spawn that is Stamps.com, I have also never had a postage meter or similar. I don’t have a contract with any company that handles the bookeeping. I list with Turbo Lister, print postage through PayPal and export my finances with the free eBay Account Assistant. To those of you running huge operations, in comparison, I sound like I am running a Mickey Mouse business over here, I am sure. But there has yet to be anything a paid service can offer me that the free services don’t also give me so, no matter how many times I run the numbers, it isn’t worth it to change for us. If I can pull in PowerSeller money using the free newbie tools, why shouldn’t I continue using them?

This doesn’t make paying for a service wrong. Remember, selling online isn’t one size fits all, no matter where you sell. I always suspected the day would come when I would need to pay for a listing tool or postage meter but, so far, it has yet to come to the point where I feel like I need extra services beyond what I have always been doing. Maybe I will never hit the point where I need an outside paid service. Maybe you hit that point the first week in. We are all running very different businesses and have very different needs so you the question of what is worth the money or not is never going to be the same answer for you as it is for me.

I believe that if it isn’t broke, don’t fit it. That said, does there come a point where being thrifty gives way to just plain being stubborn or stupid?

I resisted buying my own domain for many years before I realized how stupid I was being. I didn’t want to spent the extra money a year but, obviously, the money was nothing compared to how the domain improved branding, business and a million other things that helped me to sell more. I was being stupid under the excuse of being thrifty for a long time before I realized.

No matter which site you sell on, what role do paid services play in your business? Did you hit a point when you realized you were being silly by not paying for extra help or do you still rely on free services for all or part of your business?