A History Unlike Any Other – Ebay

The site quickly became massively popular, as sellers came to list all sorts of odd things and buyers actually bought them. Relying on trust seemed to work remarkably well, and meant that the site could almost be left alone to run itself. The site had been designed from the start to collect a small fee on each sale, and it was this money that Omidyar used to pay for AuctionWeb’s expansion. The fees quickly added up to more than his current salary, and so he decided to quit his job and work on the site full-time. It was at this point, in 1996, that he added the feedback facilities, to let buyers and sellers rate each other and make buying and selling safer.

In 1997, Omidyar changed AuctionWeb’s – and his company’s – name to ‘eBay’, which is what people had been calling the site for a long time. He began to spend a lot of money on advertising, and had the eBay logo designed. It was in this year that the one-millionth item was sold (it was a toy version of Big Bird from Sesame Street).

Then, in 1998 – the peak of the dotcom boom – eBay became big business, and the investment in Internet businesses at the time allowed it to bring in senior managers and business strategists, who took in public on the stock market. It started to encourage people to sell more than just collectibles, and quickly became a massive site where you could sell anything, large or small. Unlike other sites, though, eBay survived the end of the boom, and is still going strong today.

1999 saw eBay go worldwide, launching sites in the UK, Australia and Germany. eBay bought half.com, an Amazon-like online retailer, in the year 2000 – the same year it introduced Buy it Now – and bought PayPal, an online payment service, in 2002.

Pierre Omidyar has now earned an estimated $3 billion from eBay, and still serves as Chairman of the Board. Oddly enough, he keeps a personal weblog at http://pierre.typepad.com. There are now literally millions of items bought and sold every day on eBay, all over the world. For every $100 spent online worldwide, it is estimated that $14 is spent on eBay – that’s a lot of laser pointers.

Now that you know the history of eBay, perhaps you’d like to know how it could work for you? Our next email will give you an idea of the possibilities.

Getting The Scoop On The Neighbors

I don’t understand the whole mission impossible deal with finding great products. I wish I could also find a site like this one to get back all of the money for my products.

Diamonds Don’t Only Have Facets!!

There are many different cuts of diamonds
to choose from. The cut essentially refers to
the shape that the diamond is cut into –
unless you are in the diamond or jewelry
business, but this shape has a great impact
on the much the diamond sparkles.

The most popular cuts are heart, marquise,
oval, pear, princess, round, trillion, and
emerald cuts. The shape has an impact on
how much the diamond sparkles, but the
actual cutting itself – when the diamond
cutter actually cuts the diamond into a
particular shape – also matters a great
deal. If the diamond is poorly cut, it will lose
its sparkle.

However, in the diamond industry, the cut of
a diamond doesn’t refer to its shape at all.
Instead, this is a reference to the stone’s
depth, width, brilliance, durability, clarity, and
other aspects of the diamond. Common
cutting problems include a missing or off
center culet, misalignment, a diamond that
is too thick or too thin, cracks, or broken
culets.

When shopping for a diamond, you should
of course choose the shape that you like the
best, but then look at several different
diamonds of that shape to find the one with
the best cut – the one that sparkles the most,
in all types of lighting.

Paypal Set To Block Unscrupulous Browsers

Web payment firm Paypal has said it will block “unsafe browsers” from using its service as part of wider anti-phishing efforts.

Customers will first be warned that a browser is unsafe but could then be blocked if they continue using it.

Paypal said it was “an alarming fact that there is a significant set of users who use very old and vulnerable browsers such as Internet Explorer 4”.

Phishing attacks trick users into handing over sensitive data.

Paypal said some users were still using Internet Explorer 3 , released more than 10 years ago. It lacks many of the security and safety features needed to protect users from phishing and other online attacks.

Legitimate sites

Paypal said it supported the use of Extended Validation SSL Certificates. Browsers which support the technology highlight the address bar in green when users are on a site that has been deemed legitimate.

The latest version of Internet Explorer support EV SSL certificates, while Firefox 2 supports it with an add-on but Apple’s Safari browser for Mac and PCs does not.

“By displaying the green glow and company name, these newer browsers make it much easier for users to determine whether or not they’re on the site that they thought they were visiting,” said Paypal.

The steps were outlined in a white paper on managing phishing, written by the firm’s chief information security officer Michael Barrett and Dan Levy, director of risk management.

In it, they said: “In our view letting users view the PayPal site on [an unsafe] browser is equal to a car manufacturer allowing drivers to buy one of their vehicles without seatbelts.”

Paypal described the battle against phishing as a “fast-moving chess match with the criminal community”.

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Do You Need Any Of These Like I Do

We’ve got some amazing new tools we’ll be releasing in 2008 that will without a doubt make those who are willing to promote ProCash a lot more sales in a lot less time.

However, there’s no need to delay as our top affiliates are already making $1000’s every month. It’s already January 2nd, what are you waiting for?

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Yahoo Trying Real Hard To Bully Google

This little morsel was in my email today. It seems that Yahoo is trying to win over clients more aggressively into their PPC arena by offering little classes on what to do. Take a look:

Would you like to learn more about your Yahoo! Search Marketing account and have your questions answered by our knowledgeable team?

Great news: Our free “Getting Started” webinar series is designed to teach you the key principles of your Yahoo! Search Marketing account, and is a quick and easy way to ensure that you’re taking full advantage of your account. For your convenience, each webinar will be presented twice.

What We’ll Cover
Webinar #1: Key Terms, Account Interface Overview and Structure
• How the Sponsored Search product works
• The account structure and the elements at each level
• A high-level review of each main section of the account interface

Webinar #2: Creating a New Campaign
An eight-step process that includes:
• Adding keywords using the keyword selector tool
• Creating two ads to test performance
• Geo-targeting and match types

Webinar #3: Keyword Tips and Best Practices
• How adding keywords can lead to an increase in traffic and an overall improvement in your account’s effectiveness
• Ensuring keywords are related to the content, theme and purpose of your web site
• Using match types and excluded words