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-- WATCHCOUNT.COM NEWSLETTER --
-- Issue #005 : July, 2009 --
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www.WatchCount.com - How many people are secretly watching your
favorite eBay items?
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Greetings!
Wow! Tons ('heaps' for our UK visitors :) happening around here at WatchCount.com, so let's get going...
--Jake
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-- Site News --
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(*) You may not have heard of the
eBay Developers Program, but they're the eBay department that allows 3rd party developers like ourselves to interact with the eBay platform and provide services to shoppers and sellers that extend beyond the eBay website itself. Well, the big news for us these days is that we received
eBay's esteemed 2009 Star Developer Award! I traveled to Sunny San Jose California last month to receive it and was able to (finally!) set foot on the eBay campus.
http://WatchCount.com/news-archive.php#eSDA09
(*) We're happy to admit that we finally joined the 21st century and opened a
Twitter account. Follow us! We'll keep you posted on interesting, funny, or odd eBay finds that turn up — that many others are watching for good reason. We may also slip in some occasional site news and other happenings. Rest assured that, like this newsletter, our tweets ought to be infrequent; so please take a moment to jump aboard and follow us!
http://WatchCount.com/go/?link=Twitter
(*) We've been doing a little housecleaning on WatchCount.com of late. You might notice a less congested menu bar that now sports drop-down menus. Moreover, if you visit us with Safari or Chrome browsers, things more generally ought to look a little tighter and cleaner across the site as well. On the functionality side of things, for our Basic Search you can now detect item types by eyeing the relevant label: "Past Sales" refers to Fixed-Price (BIN) items, while "Bids" of course refers to Auction Format listings. Of course, simply clicking on the item title or photo will give you the full scoop.
Have you ever run a search on WatchCount.com and wished for a quick way to eye the listings alongside similar results on eBay? Now you can. For keyword-based searches you'll see a link at the bottom of the search results that says "See your search results on eBay instead"; a simple click will take you to eBay in a new window, saving you a step by showing you real-time results based on the keywords you'd already entered at WatchCount.com.
(*) WatchCount.com has been receiving some good press lately.
Skip McGrath did a generous write-up (again) of us in his recent newsletter, and Marlene Gavens (aka
The Savvy Seller) invited us to speak with her on a recent podcast. A little closer to home,
eBay Partner Network (aka 'ePN', another eBay department) interviewed and blogged about us.
http://WatchCount.com/news-archive.php#Skip1
http://WatchCount.com/news-archive.php#TSS1
http://WatchCount.com/news-archive.php#ePN_blog
(*) We're busy programming some new, added functionality for WatchCount.com — actually, it's one of our most requested new features. While we're not quite ready to spill the beans just yet, we expect to be beta testing the new feature in about a week. As a newsletter subscriber you're invited to get in on the private beta and play with the new feature before it goes live. Just get in touch with us and we'll apprise you of the details as things move along:
http://WatchCount.com/contact.php
(*) Will you be at the Affiliate Summit conference in NYC next month? If so, give us a holler and we'll see if we can connect.
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-- WatchCount.com Tip --
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If you're a collector of baseball paraphernalia, for example, you might be used to searching WatchCount.com using certain keyword phrases to locate your items of interest. While you may be familiar with using wildcard ("*") searches, and negative ("-") keywords, here's a syntax that not many people know about.
You can ask WatchCount.com to return search results that are "any 2 out of these 3 words". Just follow this example (without quotes): "@1 baseball autograph card" will return items that include 'baseball autograph' as well as 'baseball card' (and 'autograph card') in their titles, with the words in any order.
You can also extend this concept to "any 3 of 4 words" using the '@2' prefix: "@2 rare vintage baseball card". Moreover, this quirky, but sometimes handy, search syntax also works on eBay itself.
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-- Visitor Q&A --
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Kerry, an eBay seller, writes:
"I just copied and pasted the HTML for the
WatchCount.com Widget and all I get is the Dynamic "Watch This item" button... The watch count portion does not appear."
This is a common question. A minor limitation of the WatchCount.com Widget is that it won't appear in your listing until your listing is fully live. So, when you see it absent while revising or previewing your item, know that it'll appear after you hit the Save/Submit/Revise button.
(Don't yet have our Widget in your eBay listings?
http://WatchCount.com/widget-info.php )
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-- What are Others Searching For? --
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(*) Reborn baby dolls continue to be a very hotly searched item on WatchCount.com. These dolls are each individually custom made by specialized and dedicated artists and have an uncanny resemblance to real live babies.
As an example of the allure of Reborn dolls, consider this now-closed eBay auction, item
320382609173 (just paste this number into any eBay search box). This auction sports intense bidding activity of over 700 bids — and with a final sale price of over US$3,500! Even more amazing is that all of those 700+ bids came from a mere 11 determined bidders. Wow!
You can see the current Most Watched Reborn dolls live right now:
eBay US:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=e2781#serp
eBay UK:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=e5985#serp
eBay Australia:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=e5785#serp
(*) We come across specific searches on WatchCount.com that seem to be far more popular in one country than other eBay sites.
Converse sneakers seem to be a fave in the UK recently:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=euk7839#serp
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-- What's Most Watched Right Now? --
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As one might expect,
Michael Jackson items continue to be quite popular on eBay and accumulate high Watch Counts:
eBay US:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=e5009#serp
eBay UK:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=e2134#serp
Taking a step back from pop culture, it's not difficult to stumble upon interesting hidden niches while cruising around either eBay or WatchCount.com. Apparently there's a market for
collectible German World War II helmets:
http://WatchCount.com/?ec=eus8279#serp
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Thanks for reading, and we'll see you again next issue.
--Jake
PS Follow us on Twitter! We'll let you know about funky/funny/wild/interesting/strange eBay items that everyone's got their eyes on:
https://Twitter.com/watchcount/
PPS Remember to visit
www.WatchCount.com each time you sit down to begin your next eBay shopping or selling session. :-)
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Don't Miss Out!
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Thank you for subscribing!
Please be sure to add Newsletter [~AT~] WatchCount [~DOT~] com to your email address book or trusted senders list so our emails don't accidentally end up in your bulk mail folder. Thanks!
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Friends Telling Friends
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Please forward this newsletter to a friend if they spend any time on eBay. Both buyers and sellers benefit from discovering
Most Watched eBay items.
Did you get this email forwarded from a friend? Get your own copy of our low-volume newsletter here:
http://WatchCount.com/newsletter.php
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Question? Comment?
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Feel free to contact us with any questions/comments/concerns you may have. We welcome your feedback - how can we improve our site? You can reach us via our Contact Us page here:
http://WatchCount.com/contact.php
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Want More?
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Find our newsletter back issues here:
http://WatchCount.com/newsletter-archive.php
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To update your email address, please click the link at the bottom of this email.
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Time to Leave?
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While we hope you enjoy receiving our occasional mailings, you may discontinue your subscription to this newsletter at any time. To do so, simply click on the link at the bottom of this email. If you have any other questions or concerns, please use the Contact Us link mentioned earlier.
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Just So You Know...
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We never send this newsletter unsolicited. You are receiving it because you subscribed to it on our website.
You can read our Privacy Policy and Terms of Service here:
http://WatchCount.com/privacy.php
http://WatchCount.com/terms.php
You must get our permission before reprinting this newsletter anywhere. To do so, please contact us via the Contact Us link above.
Copyright (c) WatchCount.com - All rights reserved.
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What is WatchCount.com?
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www.WatchCount.com offers a collection of helpful tools and services for eBayers, including unique marketplace search capabilities unavailable on the
eBay site. Sellers can avail themselves of automatic listing enhancements, while both buyers and sellers find it helpful to lookup
Most Watched eBay items in real-time to better help them frame their buying and selling activities on eBay. An official eBay Compatible Application, WatchCount.com is
certified by eBay for use with the eBay platform.
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www.WatchCount.com - What's the most popular ____ on
eBay right now?
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