This aeroplane made from fizzy drinks cans shows that recycling is really taking off.
I'm not sure why a car might need a siren that makes a horse noise. But just in case, we've got one.
Following on from our positive reception at eBay Live we were invited to join Dan Trunk of Auction-Tutor on his weekly podcast. Never one to turn down a chance to address the eBay masses, our man Dan Wilson put his hand up the highest and got the plumb role of joining the transatlantic interview at 11pm UK time! The topic of discussion for the Two Dannies was eBay and Video in your Listings which you can listen to by clicking on the button below.
For a small start-up opportunities to market your service are always gratefully received so a big thank you to Dan. We're really pleased that we got the chance to share the vzaar story with a host of eBay listeners and to make new friends in the eBay-sphere but sometimes, just sometimes, someone can say it better than you ever could so we leave it to Dan Trunk to summarise us...
On Thursday 7th August 2008, all eBay.co.uk Insertion Fees are half price for any listing using the Auction-style, Auction-with-Buy It Now or Buy It Now Only (Fixed Price) formats in eligible categories. As always, there are a whole host of Ts & Cs which you can check out here.
Lots of sellers worry that their items get lost in the cheap listings maelstrom. More sellers list more items. Conversion rates suffer and for some it can be a bane rather than a boon. Here are some tips for getting the most out of this Thursday's CLD:
- Try using 5, 3, and 1 day listings. Most people want to make the most out of the promotion and put their items up for 10 days, or 7. Items get the most visibility in their closing hours, so shorter durations can mean you have less competition.
- Have a clear out. Have you got stock that isn't moving? Put it on eBay at rock bottom prices using the lower fees and try and shift it. Storing and maintaining stock costs money and some times it can make real sense to just get rid. You'll need all that valuable space in anticipation of the christmas rush.
- Experiment. The insertion fee reduction is a good chance to experiement with less risk. Have you considered testing out some sales with Free P&P?
- Pray for rain. August is a quiet month on eBay for many sellers and if the sun's out, it can be even quieter. So when it comes to eBay sales, the rain is a good thing.
Since vzaar started we've been creating contacts and building bridges with various people across the business industry with the aid of our trusty moo business cards. When handed over, they never fail to illicit a response like "oh they're neat," or "what a funky card!". We like that.
Our business cards (not actual size!)
And in actual size (with no obvious thing to scale next to)
In the US at eBay Live they went down a storm and so pockets stuffed with cards Adrian and I tagged along to the Moo.com annual street party last week (except it wasn't in a street) to say hello to a few folks. Free drinks and free food (check out the feeding frenzy) helped to bring lots of like minded fans together in the name of the world's oldest industry, printing, but to get a feel for the night watch our brief video here:
Check out some of these videos that are on vzaar right now.
This video of a delightful narrowboat just makes you want to chuck it all in and take to the rivers and canals of England.
A great example of why it pays not to be shy: this engaging peiece to camera really shows off the item for sale.
This charming water feature will be a hit in any garden. But, must dash, need to go to the toilet...
After an extremely stressful 5 hour session battling with html, I'm pleased to announce that the Help section of vzaar is now up to date with lots of new FAQ's. Having probably been the vzaar employee that you first encounter if you have ever had a problem on vzaar, I've trawled through all your old emails requesting help and support to collect the most... well, the most frequently asked questions and updated the Help section accordingly.
So two things I considered while compiling these:
Firstly - How hard it is to strike a tone in the broad space that sits between authoritative tech speak and patronizing nursery school teacher. Your (the audience's) knowledge varies greatly and one has to respond accordingly to that knowledges - but the FAQ's have to appeal to everyone. Customers I've spoken to have ranged from developers to my favourite lady that wanted to know why her video always appeared upside down (solved with the response "Which way round do you hold your camera when you film your items?...") I hope I've struck a tone that's right, gives enough deatils to answer the questions, but not too much that it confuses the issue.
The second thought that I pondered over while trawling through the annals of customer support was... Does anyone actually ever READ the help section? Disappointingly I think not. My continued watchful eye over the customer support inbox will probably go to prove this. The reason why I think that? Because I'm terrible at looking through FAQ's myself. It's like not being able to find your wallet, grabbing all your pockets in a dramatic manner and declaring to your friend what a disaster it is. Said friend comes to your aid and calmly locates your wallet almost immediately. Much easier that way round. I do it all the time. Maybe if everyone knew the blood, sweat and tears that went into the extensive list of FAQ's (yes I dislike typing in html THAT much) they'd have a rummage through there first... but probably not. I wouldn't.
Jamie mentioned that a movie would be coming soon on his post about the office move.
You'll find it below in all it's glory. You'll notice how half the office*cough*emmajonathanmauricio*cough found excuses to not be there whilst three of us did all the heavy lifting. Only joking. Jonathan and Mauricio had too much important work to do (some great changes to vzaar coming over the next few months), whilst Emma had a summer festival to attend.
You'll notice the video jumps in places where magically stuff happens very quickly. This isn't because we have an office magic unicorn that packs things up, but rather that Jamie and Ian were more concerned with "getting stuff done" rather than my integrity as a stop motion film maker. I'm sure you're equally appalled at how my creative spirit was trampled on. Alas, my pleas have fallen on deaf ears.
Anyway, we all love a bit of video at vzaar so we hope you enjoy our move to new digs.
Jamie and I went to a SoHo Chruch (believe it or not) to the Techcrunch (UK) Pitch Night last Thursday.
Jamie and I found it a really worth while night. It's always good to watch others pitch as it gives you both ideas and and thoughts on your own pitching.
However the key bit I found that was spot on, was Doug Richard (seen below), who Mike has brought in as a Simon Cowell type figure. After each pitch, Doug chimed in with one point. Reagardless of if the point was mostly positive or mostly not, his remarks where spot on, really thought provoking and the most valuable bit of the night. Even more so than the free beer. I'm not sure I would have got as much out of the night had it not been for Doug's bit.
I'm not going to say to much else on this, as the trackbacks and comments and Mike's follow up will surely do this. Except to say I can recommend going along to these things if you can. Always good to observe what's going on in the industry and who is saying what, and to whom, and why.
So back in 2007 a select set of clever people came up with an idea and from that acorn the rather funky tree that is vzaar.com grew. Lots of clever, complicated coding followed and on the 4th of September 2007 vzaar was established in the heart of London in an area that posh people apparently call Fitzrovia.
It's been fun here and as a team of six in our little space, we've fought over desk space, plastered charts, plans and weird diagrams to the walls and enjoyed the strangely intoxicating view of Londoners coming and going along Tottenham Court Road.
But vzaar, like an infant prodigy, has grown and it's now time to up sticks to a new part of town. Waterloo to be precise, buried under the railway arches, with a bit more space and a rather comfy looking couch! So whilst we've not embraced the web 2.0 culture and hired our own chef or got an office dog called Fido it does mean that this week we're currently busy boxing up our computers, printers and weird desk gonks and saying a teary farewell to our current landlords.
The good news though is that its business as usual for sellers wishing to use video in their eBay listings so do feel free to contact us here or get in touch by phone if you have any queries or questions. We'll be only too pleased to hear from you. As for the new HQ, should you ever wish to pop by and say hello to team vzaar then by all means drop us a line. I'm sure we can find some red carpet to roll out.
PS - Watch out for our film of the move coming later...
Hello All,
For those of you that missed eBay live! in Chicago this year - I've put together a small video of our trip to give you a taste of what you missed.
...Dan says it looks like a holiday video - but I promise I was working extremely hard and I thought it important to give a taste of Chicago too!