The two Internet marketing channels are paid and organic search. Organic search has no payment influences and relies on optimization of various pages and site developments. Results will differ by search engine and algorithms.

You should target users where they search, Google, MSN, and Yahoo.  You can reach demographics across the Web by using AdSense and site targeting. Choose the right keywords and customize the message to increase brand awareness.

eBay paid search attracts millions of potential buyers per day to eBay sellers. eBay has one of the largest portfolios on every major search engine. eBay sellers can take advantage of eBay paid search by using rich and specific keywords in listing descriptions.

Other things sellers can do are use the paid search suggestion box, utilize attributes and keep your account information up to date. Collect data about consumer behavior in your store and use eBay and search engine tools to grow your portfolio.

Web sites that are good resources include Search Engine Watch, WebmasterWorld and it must have slipped his mind but also WebProNews and WebProworld.

Suze Orman At eBay Live!

"[People] are spending money they don’t have to impress people they don’t know or don’t even like," she said, prepping the crowd for a little financial wizardry.

Orman covered so many topics in the short time she spoke, we compiled a list of tips you can use a ready-reference for bettering your financial situation.

Orman’s Personal Financial Tips and Goals

Goal: Credit score above 760; If you are in credit card debt and your employer doesn’t match your 401(k), redirect that money toward paying off your credit cards. Your FICO score will rise and benefit you more in the long run.

Tip: Have at least a 6-8 month emergency plan fund to finance yourself during times of trouble.

Goal: Home ownership; Owning a home will be the best investment of your life. Most homes appreciate on average about 4% a year.

Tip: Add a revocable living trust (RLT) to your will.

Tip: Variable, universal, and whole life insurance are not good options. Look into term life insurance as you only need it until your youngest child is about 22 years old. Never leave a child under 18 as the beneficiary.

Tip: A Roth IRA is 10 times better than a 401(k) or any other type of plan out there.

Tip: If you don’t need money right away (10 years or so) invest in mutual funds instead of individual funds. 

Seth Godin At eBay Live

Godin likes the ethereal, it would seem, and likes to blog about vibes and what not. But his knack for catch phrases and abstracts is what inspires (and sells) a half-dozen of his books, where he tells readers how to be remarkable, when to quit, and about ideaviruses.

How else would you live up to the job title "agent of change"?

At the conference, Godin parlayed the ideavirus (for those of us that care little for neologisms, think "meme" – Greek doesn’t go over well in the mass market) into an interesting discussion about generating buzz for your site or product.

"One person decides someone is a superstar, and the word spreads," he said. The key to getting more site traffic, then, is promoting yourself, an activity that helps create the superstar image.

"People are attracted to superstars and they will buy into your product or site just because everyone else is."

While that’s somewhat Aristotelian (right now I’m lowering my glasses down the bridge of my nose to look extra-professorish), this is more in line with Aristippus of Cyrene‘s supposed love of passionate pursuits (I’m pursing my lips just so after that, for emphasis).

It is this memetic, sorry, ideaviral tendency in humans to accept passion from one and give it to another that seems to be the basis of Godin’s philosophy. 

"You have to love what you are talking about, or the people won’t love it," he said. So, "sell something worth talking about."

He used the example of LittleMissMatched.com, a website that sells mismatched socks for the symmetrically agnostic and impaired. The scourge of lonesome footwear must be stopped, as it were.

Godin notes that this company’s "business is booming." A company that sells mismatched socks is worth talking about – it becomes a story to tell, to hear, to add to the collective myth.

At the end of the day, whether creating superstars or (excitedly) spreading the word about a product or service, marketers are storytellers.

Fancy Feast Cat Food, for example, is a carefully crafted myth that cats have a sense of class and general Aristotelian viewpoints. This is not so. Cats most love garbage and butts. People with money are the aristocrats, and like the idea of having aristocratic cats.

Even if that’s really, really silly. The ideavirus – the meme – is airborne, regardless of recent pet food developments and all sense of sense.

Godin’s bottom line is more of a "revolving circle," as opposed to other redundant repetitiveness:

1.    Be remarkable (at it’s base, "remarkable" means "something to mention")
2.     Tell a story that makes people feel good
3.    When they feel good, they’ll spread the word about why (remarking about it)
4.     And then they’ll give you permission to market to them 

The eBay Market

Some basics that sellers should keep in mind include good customer service, a professional looking site and good logo that you can create yourself, or use designers if preferred.

 When it comes to listing formats, sellers need to understand the difference of listing formats. If you used fixed pricing you need good visibility. Listing strategies affect search. Use the benefits of your store along with cross promotions, listing frames, promotions boxes, quick store tune-up and viral marketing. You want to try and attract the attention of potential buyers.

The use of email marketing is very important. Its okay to use off line tactics such as promotional flyers, but you should use customer collateral to reinforce your status as a reputable store.

As for search engine optimization, the goal is to get your stores on more search engines. Use descriptive store names and make the content relevant to users. Provide page titles, meta- tags and be consistent.

 You can also use social networking to distribute your listings along with having a presence on discussion boards.

Three main things to keep in mind are activating cross promotion, add listing frames to all pages and insert promotional flyers.

Three final things to do are use email marketing, SEO and launch special sale events.

5 eBay Tips

Here’s nice list of eBay seller tips that came out of that Q&A:

1.    Have a phone service for your customers. It adds credibility. But be prepared because you will get A LOT of calls and you need to make sure you are staffed and ready for it.

2.    Respond positively and professionally to negative feedback. Then go on with your day.

3.    Make a nuisance of yourself in a good way by answering customer concerns before they ask you about them. This works especially well when dealing with "paranoid" customers who repeatedly ask about shipping, arrival dates, etc. Be aggressive about contacting them with answers before they get a chance to contact you.

4.    Personalize the shopping experience. People love human interaction and feel reassured when they know they’re not talking to a machine.

5.    Offer frequent shoppers a way of trading in or earning credit toward purchases. This works especially well when trying to move items that have been on the shelf for a while.

 
One interesting development from the Q&A session came about when an audience member asked about the inability to find the second-highest bidder when the top-bidder turns out to be fraudulent.

The panel said they would address that problem with eBay and try to get it changed for the better.