The Ides of July

I guess it was too much to ask for another July 17 to pass without incident. I thought that the Web was a little slow today and also that my ISP sent a last minute maintenance notice for tonight which I didn't receive until this afternoon was a little unusual. Usually there is a little more warning...At least it's not me...Just wish some of the quotes in that article didn't sound so much like a challenge.

July 17 is a day I don't really like much, for multiple reasons I won't go into here. Let's just say that, over the years, I've learned to be wary of the day. This year it wasn't a good day for network security news or the stock market. Guess declaring the recession over was like saying the war is over. Wonder why we still have lots of folks without jobs or over in the Gulf?

On the upside, my Keywords on eBay are performing well. (Hopefully you can still see my banner on this search result...) After the first week, I made a simple change to my list that today yielded the most keyword-generated orders to date. The change will mean far fewer impressions for my banner, but, hopefully much longer program length and greater conversion percentages. The Keywords might even become profitable. One good change was an increase in the file size limit for the banners. I need to go in and update mine, which is a little pixelated at 15K. With 25K, we can go wild!

Interesting item in my weekly newsletter from Ephemerala. Suzanne reports success with her Keywords, as well, and asks her customers not to click on her banners so that she won't be charged. Happy to help, since Suzanne's newsletter comes like clockwork early every Monday morning, and it's full of inspiring deals on gemstone beads (last week, she even offered some for free! If you're into bead crafting, be sure and check out her eBay store. (Also, be sure and visit the About the Store page for an example of how to leverage this often under-used page well!)

A store like Suzanne's makes me wish we could choose to have our "vanity" store URLs link to the about me page instead of the main store on eBay. Fortunately, you can easily set up your own domain to point to your About Me page, and it can easily be featured with an easy to remember URL and e-mail that matches.

By the way...

... anyone else notice the Powered by IBM logo at the top of the new eBay product pages?

... found a new site tonight while browsing an an article about Google on Slate.com. It's called Friendster and it promises to be an interesting experiment in using Word of Mouth to spread ideas. (If you are a Doonesbury fan, check this out!)

...thought it was interesting that the merchandising Amazon.com chose to use on this page was for actual doormats.

... eValueville has tons of designer shoes on their auctions this week.

Congratulations to all of those who are graduating from the University of Phoenix this weekend!