ebay and Beyond : Basics to Business » Jay Berkowitz

PeSA/ECMTA Spring 2009 Summit Exceeds Expectations Again!

admin — Tue, 09 Jun 2009 12:38:54 +0000

With concerns over the economy, a few hundred internet marketers converged on Atlanta last week for the annual Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA) Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association (ECMTA) Spring Summit. Most of the attendees had one thing on their minds, how to maintain or grow their businesses in these tough economic times.

In business, it is often a rarity when competitors get together and share their common problems and even more rare for them to share strategies on how to increase success, but at this event the networking and took center stage. Ecommerce merchants openly discussing ways to work more efficently and profitably.

Great Line-Up

With a list of presenters such as Tood Lutwack eBay’s Senior Director of Seller Development, Scott Wingo CEO of Channeladvisor, Jay Berkowitz author of Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing, Brent Leary, John “ColderIce” Lawson, Michael Ober Senior Director of Yahoo Small Business, Randy Smythe from Buy.com and many more (see the entire list of speakers here) conference goers had the opportunity for face to face talks with those that can make a difference in the industry.

Much of the 2 day event was centered on social media networking and how it can impact business. Other topics included shipping solutions, marketing venues that can boost exposure and a great open forum Q & A with the experts for the final session.

While there certainly was an intense focus on business, this event had a huge additional benefit and that was the money raised for the Amercian Cancer Society by attendees participating in a Casino night event with all proceeds going to the charity.

While there are hundreds of conferences for internet marketers to choose from, the PeSA/ECMTA event is one that should be high on your list of choices.

Special thanks to Netspray.com for sponsoring ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business at this event, and Warrantyfeed.com, Sharsboutique and Onlineauction.com for sponsoring segments of our live broadcasts.

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Ecommerce Merchants/PeSA 2009 Spring Summit in Atlanta

admin — Thu, 28 May 2009 13:21:56 +0000

June 3-4, 2009

SMB’s are constantly looking for useful information and networking opportunities to improve and increase their businesses, and Ecommerce Merchants Trade Association (ECMTA) and their sister organization Professional eBay Sellers Alliance (PeSA) have teamed up to create just such an event. The two day event scheduled for June 3-4 2009 at the Atlanta Airport Marriott will feature some of the largest and most influencial businesses and experts in the internet marketing world.

From Amazon and Buy.com to eBay and Yahoo, some of the largest ecommerce marketplaces will be represented as will many ecommerce platform providers such as Channeladvisor, Infopia, Vendio and more. The current agenda show 22 sessions in the two day event. All sessions are single sessions so attendees will not have to choose between concurrent programs.

This type of agenda provides ample time for attendees to network as well as gain useful information from the presenters. Having covered last years event in New Orleans, the content and opportunity for individual “face time” with ecommerce leaders and executives was much appreciated and utilized by the attendees.

ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business will again be broadcasting live from the event for what looks like 8 hours each day (maybe more)! Log onto www.basicstobusiness.com and click on the Talkshoe player on the top of the page to hear us live and check out our live video streaming from the Summit at http://www.justin.tv/ebayandbeyond.

Special thanks to Netspray.com for sponsoring our broadcasts from the Summit.

PS. There is still time to register at the EXTREMELY low price of $99.00!

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2nd Anniversary Huge Success New Show Day & Time Announced

admin — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 18:17:43 +0000

The hoopla has died down, the well wishers were phenomial and my co-host audition with Kat was a huge success! Gosh I am tired! The supporters and advertisers were so generous with gifts and prizes to give away! I will need a month just to thank them all, and thank them I will!

New Day And Time For ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business

Well the really huge announcement on our second anniversary show was of course the change in day and time for the program. That’s right, effective February 9, 2009 ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business will be heard Mondays from 1-3 PM EST. The change comes with some trepidation, but the concensus seems to show that weekdays are better for this type of program. In addition to the day and time change, new voices have been added! Joining Scott Pooler of iBusinesslogic as contributing co-hosts to the program are Kat Simpson owner of Kat’s Kloset and Melinda Jackson owner of GalleriaGifts. Adding these two new voices in addition to Scott to the program brings differing viewpoints and experiences to our listeners which adds depth to the show!

A Plethura of Prizes Given Away

A huge number of sponsors and listeners provided us with gifts to give away on our second anniversary and for this I will be eternally grateful!

Scott Pooler of iBusinesslogic.com and Merchantrun-globallink.com provided one of our lucky listeners with a basic installation of a premium Wordpress based website along with 6 months of free webhosting and 30 minutes of telephone instruction on how to use the site. The winner, Beth Cherkowsky was truly a very happy camper!

Mark Bradshaw was the winner of the 12 month Bonanzle.com Premier Membership. Mark and his wife Jan currently sell on Onlineauction.com under the user ID stubsinc.

Tim Selaty from Knockoutsoftware.com joined us on the program to announce the release of the Knockoutsoftware.com package of KO scripts and Tim gave away a Platinum Level Package of the Knockoutsoftware and a website design to Elizabeth Metz known on Onlineauction as MetzyMom.

Other prizes included autographed books from Jay Berkowitz author of The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing, The eBay Business Desk Reference from Marsha Collier well known educator and author of the eBay For Dummies Series, a scrapbooking package from Marlene Gavens The Savvy Seller, several hats from Trent and his wife Jodie AAA Iowa Art, Gifts and Antiques under the eBay seller ID of tjwindart and Storepromoter.info

While it seemed like all we did was give away prizes, we were able to discuss some other breaking news which includes the announcement from Scott Pooler of the launching of Merchantrun-globallink.com. Merchantrun has been prominent in Asia and Europe and now is available in the US. Merchantrun allows eBay sellers to manage inventory and list on eBay’s 21 international sites at very reasonable rates. Scott also announced a special promotional incentive of $24.99 in credits to be used on the Merchantrun-globallink site for a limited time.

News Flash

In conjunction and with the assistance of Tim and Tim of TLSwebsolutions.com creators of the Knockoutsoftware.com I am proud to announce the debut of Promoteyourauction.com. This site will feature the Knockoutsoftware as well as begin promoting individual and corporate listings on the internet via video streams. Now ecommerce sellers will have the opportunity to spotlight their items on whatever venue they sell from. We anticipate beginning this service on March 2, 2009 at 12 Noon ET and every Monday following. We believe the technology allows us to promote these items visually in a way that will increase traffic and sales for those utilizing the site! Many thanks go out to Tim and Tim for all their hard work in the site development and integration with the AuctionKO scripts! Watch for additional information the coming days!

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ebay & Beyond: Basics To Business Celebrates 2nd Anniversary

admin — Tue, 03 Feb 2009 01:42:56 +0000

Wow, time flies when you are having fun! February 4th 2007 will forever remain in my mind! The premier program was an hour long and I had no idea what I was doing. I still am learning, and enjoying this more and more!

I still enjoy coming to my office every morning, but then again it is only 10 feet from my living room! Since our first on February 4th 2007 I have broadcast approximately 120 shows. Now I know this does not equate weekly but I have done 6 live shows from 2 eBayLive’s, in addition to shows from Channeladvisor’s Catalyst Conference in Pinehurst NC as well as the PESA Summit in New Orleans both in 2008. In addition I host a weekly hour long program for Onlineauction.com entitled OLA-Radio every Thursday evening.

During our 2 years on the air with ebay & Beyond I have been blessed with excellent guests. I have had the opportunity to interview some of the who’s who in ecommerce. Such notables include Jim “Griff” Griffith, host of eBay Radio and known as the Dean of eBay University (he was my mentor during my nearly 2 year stint as an instructor here), Ina Steiner editor of Auctionbytes, Scot Wingo CEO of Channeladvisor, Bjorn Espenes former CEO of Infopia.com, Jay Berkowitz author of The Ten Golden Rules, Patrick Byrne CEO of Overstock.com, Scott Pooler blogger of the Tradingassistantjournal.com and CEO of iBusinesslogic.com, John ColderIce Lawson blogger of Colderice.com and CEO of 3rdpo.com, Chris Dawson of Tamebay.com, Chris Fain CEO of Onlineauction.com, Mark Dorsey of Bonanzle.com, many more software companies such as Hammertap.com, numerous online sellers and other ecommerce related websites!

In addition I have had the pleasure of being interviewed on other podcasts like Tips From The Top with The Savvy Seller Marlene Gavens, Walt Kolenda’s (AKA AuctionWally) Brainstorming Bonanzle, and John Lawson’s ColderIce program. These have all been wonderful experiences for me, being on the other side of the microphone.

What I truly enjoy is the interaction and diverse viewpoints of all my great guests and listeners. I am not nor have I ever claimed to be an ecommerce “Expert”. What I do claim is to have my own experience as well the ability to understand the complexities of ecommerce selling from the beginners to large corporations. The one other claim I make is that if I don’t know something (and that happens alot) I will find the answer from those that do know the answer.

Now as I enter my 3rd year I look forward to some exciting new technology. Last week I began streaming live video of the program via Ustream.TV! This is tremendously fun and I look forward to bringing more to the program every week.

My anniversary program will feature special cameo guest appearances, great prize packages and much more! I ask my loyal listeners to spread the word. There will be exciting news about changes to the program,,, nope can’t tell all the secrets yet, but hope you will all listen or watch!

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Jay Berkowitz On ebay & Beyond Radio June 28

admin — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 12:45:43 +0000

Fresh from eBay Live 2008 in Chicago, where his presentation was very well received in a packed room of ecommerce sellers Jay Berkowitz author of The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing will be our guest this Saturday. Listen in as Sparky and I interview Jay about his new book, his experience at eBay Live and the trends in ecommerce marketing.

Be sure and register to win an autographed copy of Jay’s new book by going to www.basicstobusiness.com and click on the Contest Page tab!

Jay Berkowitz, CEO Ten Golden Rules

Jay Berkowitz is a small business internet consultant with more than 20 years of marketing experience. He has been behind the marketing for Fortune 500 brands: McDonald’s and Coca-Cola, developed online and offline strategies for AT&T, Sprint, and managed the marketing department for leading health and fitness website eDiets.com.Mr. Berkowitz is the CEO of Ten Golden Rules, a B2B internet marketing agency based in Boca Raton, Florida, specializing in internet advertising and marketing consulting services.

Mr. Berkowitz is the Past President of the American Marketing Association South Florida Chapter, a Founding Board Member of the South Florida Interactive Marketing Association, and was a member of the Toronto International Film Festival Board of Directors.

He is a popular presenter at conferences and events such as: The Association of Internet Marketing and Sales, The Direct Marketing Association, The American Marketing Association, The Affiliate Summit, Ad-Tech, The CEO Roundtable, The Washington Weight Loss Marketing and Obesity Conference, and The Global Benchmarking Council.

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Saying Good-Bye To An Old Friend-eBayLive 2008

admin — Mon, 23 Jun 2008 13:21:51 +0000

It was a very long drive back home to Western New York. With over 8 hours on the road, I have had a chance to reflect on the friends with which I reconnected, the new friends I met, and the one friend I fear is gone forever, eBayLive. I have had the pleasure of attending 6 of the 7 previous eBayLive events, and since it has already been announced that there will be no such event in 2009, I fear that the announced 2010 eBayLive in Orlando will not happen, or if it does, it certainly will not be the event as I knew it, much like eBayLive 2008 was certainly not anything like the 6 previous conferences.It was defintely sad to see the dramatic change in the atmosphere in this year’s event. One eBay employee that I spoke with said that there were 7000 registrations prior to the start of the event, yet I and many of the vendors and attendees that I spoke with felt the number of actual attendees was significantly lower. One indication of this I saw was at the Gala on Saturday evening when over 25 large boxes of eBayLive 2008 shoulder bags, the bags given out when attendees picked up their badges, were placed out on the Gala floor for the taking. In addition, we noticed that all of the tables at the Gala had several extra bags on the chairs.

Another sign that all was not good at the event was the very noticeable presence of a large security force. Now there has always been security, but not in the numbers and not as visible as at this years event.

The most obvious indication of the concern of eBay members was the mood. From the opening of the exhibit floor on Thursday, the mood of the attendees was in my humble opinion, depressed. The large number of eBay booths on the exhibit floor with large numbers of eBay employees staffing them, were often nearly empty. I witnessed the employees huddled together talking because there were no customers crowding around their booths as in years past. The attendees were subdued, and the exhibit floor was quiet.

Also notable was the obvious decrease in vendors and exhibitors. The exhibit floor was occupied by a large number of eBay booths, but it was very obvious that there were probably 30-40% fewer exhibitors over previous years.

When talking with vendors and exhibitors, they all mentioned the change in the demographics of the attendees. In previous years, there was a healthy mix of new users and experienced PowerSellers. This year there appeared to be far fewer newer users and the general feeling is that the vast majority of attendees were more experienced users looking for information on multi-channel marketing. This indicates to me that sellers are looking to move away from eBay to other venues.

The one thing that really glares to many experienced eBayLive attendees is that eBay usually makes at least one major announcement during the event. This year, with the exception of the PayPal changes, and the opening of the eBay API to third party developers, there was no BIG announcement. Many attendees are worried that the usual major announcements will be made in the days or weeks to come via the eBay Announcements Board and email because eBay did not want to risk a major confrontation with the users at the event.

Well, that is just a brief synopsis of my reflections of the event. I certainly will post more as I digest and review my notes and the 10+ hours of podcasts that we recorded and will be available later today on our website www.basicstobusiness.com. Just click on the Archived Programs tab on the navigation bar. Be sure to listen in on Saturday from 10 AM to Noon ET to our weekly live internet streaming radio show ebay & Beyond: Basics to Business as we recap the eBayLive 2008 event and remember to register for our contest and win an autographed copy of Jay Berkowitz’s new book The Ten Golden Rules of Internet Marketing!

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