Friday, July 27, 2007

Kijiji vs. Craigslist

Will Kijiji be able to take on or surpass craigslist as the go-to place for online classifieds? Of course it's hard to say.  But in the Internet world, it seems anything is possible with the right mix of interface, perseverance, and critical mass.



This weekend a funny thing happened. I was online discussing Kijiji with a friend of mine, Paul Rapa, a commodities analyst who has a lot of thoughts on the topic, and I popped over to Kijiji to see what was up. It was interesting to be confronted with the big green U.S. map right away on the first page, but certainly eye-catching and clean.



So, lo and behold I drill down to the Washington, D.C. area where I live, and I find a estate  sale listed just down the road from me.  For whatever reason, I did not also see it on craigslist at that time.



Paul has these thoughts: "In order for
them to defeat Craigslist they would have to add Skype to Kijjii soon and drop
that dreadful name."

Also, craigslist is pretty efficient at eliminating spam, flagging postings, and self-policing its community.  Whereas "Many of the ads on Kijiji NY are inserted 10x each," says Paul. "If Ebay wanted to get serious in fighting Craigslist they should have a fiilter to prevent these ads."

And yet, one journalist I read (I can't remember who now) was complaining that craigslist was slow to implement improvements..for example, he wanted a better way to filter items in his surrounding areas or different distances.

Paul thinks eBay should use the myworld domain instead of Kijiji. Other thoughts of his...
Stumbleupon and Kijijii have areas for dating -- "they can
get a jump start on all the dating sites by combining with Skype video and
chat...Skype video can be huge on a dating
site."

It will be interesting to see how this kijiji-craigslist thing plays out. (And if eBay has a 25% interest in craigslist, does it make it some kind of internecine fighting?).





Thursday, July 19, 2007

New ZipGarage Map Widget - Find a Garage Sale on the Map




Michael Carluen, co-founder of ZipGarage.com, has come out with a cool new widget tool -- I just posted it to the left-hand sidebar of this blog so check it out -- it's "a
nifty and simple widget appropriately called 'Map Widget
for Blogs.' "  Basically, he says, the widget is a just very small google-map
that contains all upcoming sales listed in ZipGarage.  "The small widget
can be placed anywhere in your website or blog. There is no programming
involved. It is as simple as cutting-and-pasting a short html tag� like
embedding a YouTube video or a photo into your blog or website�s html
page - that�s it!"

And so I did. Very cool, Michael!




















 










As he points out, the widget allows you instant access to ZipGarage
sale data, across the US,
within blogs or websites.

For me, it's great because I run a web site called YardSalers.net as well, and I try to keep my readers informed of tools like this. As Michael says, "I am hoping it�ll be a good service
to you and to all other garage/yard sale bloggers out there." I think it will be...thanks again, Michael.  Check it out, everyone.



 





Sunday, July 15, 2007

Ztail Makes It Super Easy to List on eBay

I've found a new tool that makes it as easy as anything I've found to list items on eBay. It's called Ztail, at ztail.com, and it draws product data and images from online databases for many existing products (and even products that are some years old) and plunks it into your listing.



So far I've used it to list (and sell) a 2-3 year old Canon Lide scanner, and I currently have up for sale a Conair hair straightener. I'm going to use the Ztail code to cut and paste the auction below...let me give this a shot...hang on here:



Conair Infiniti 208 Hair Designer Styler / Dryer















View more pics



right now on eBay



330146935805

This item is currently for sale. Click below to bid or learn more!



eBay Current Price, High Bidder, Total Bids

End Time



PDT



Location



See It Now



See all of my Ztail listings

Try Ztail!

This listing created for FREE in less than 1 minute with Ztail.



Tuesday, July 10, 2007

My First eBay Affiliate Link - Anyone for Harry Potter?

I have a pretty cool set of 1st Us/Canada edition softcover slipcased Harry Potter books up for auction. I decided to use them to test my very first eBay affiliate program link.



Let's see if this works..wish me luck!




Click here for a cool early Harry Potter Boxed Set!