How to Create a Selling Strategy, and Why it's Important for your eBay Business
This workshop will be held on Friday, January 5th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. Transitioning from a hobby seller to a business seller takes a lot of dedication and the ability to learn more about your intended market. Developing a selling strategy will define your business and help you find and maintain eBay buyers. Join Dave, Sara and Denise from the Terapeak team to explore how market research can develop your selling strategy and give you the leading edge on the competition. Learn about the three T's – Trending, Timing, and Titling - and how these three concepts can help your auctions fetch top dollars.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Go to www.ebay.com
• Click on Community at the top of the page
• Click on "Workshops" in the "Events" section
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshops Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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If you are engaged in an eBay transaction, please note that the United States Postal Service will have no regular mail delivery or retail service that day, and will resume normal services on Wednesday, January 3rd.

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While repairs are being made, it may take several days for their Internet services to work as normal. If you are involved in an eBay transaction with a member in this area, we encourage you to be patient with them and to keep trying to communicate as their services are restored.

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Bill Cobb

Tomorrow, we’re running a one-day promotion where the insertion fees for Auction-Style and Fixed Price listings will be only 15 cents. And, yes, this includes eBay Motors Parts & Accessories listings. (For full promotion details, please see our promotion page).

On behalf of everyone here at eBay, we hope you are having a safe, enjoyable holiday season.

Sincerely,

Bill Cobb
President, eBay North America

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Gary Briggs

Holiday Public Relations and Ad Campaigns
I'm pleased to share that our holiday PR campaigns have been very effective at making eBay "top-of-mind" for buyers this year. Over 870 stories have been run about eBay this holiday season across newspapers, magazines, TV, and radio, reaching more than 185 million people!

To name a few highlights, we recently worked with USA Today and The Wall Street Journal on articles where eBay was featured as a place to find hot gifts for the holidays. Our veteran Style Director Constance White appeared on the TODAY show a few days ago to talk about holiday fashion makeovers on a budget. This was on the heels of a previous TODAY Show story in November that highlighted eBay as one of the few places to pick up this season's coveted gifts – the TMX Elmo and PlayStation 3.

eBay Express is also getting a lot of coverage. Rosie O'Donnell spread the eBay Express message on The View recently, and she gave Nikon cameras to her lucky audience, courtesy of eBay Express. Similarly, Tyra Banks sent her audience home with iPods last Monday on behalf of eBay Express. On December 10th, our own Griff was interviewed in a USA Today Article about Holiday shopping where he had the opportunity to talk about Buyer Protection on eBay Express.

To complement all these celebrity spots, we continue to have a heavy presence in television to drive demand. Following our brand TV spots that began earlier in the fall, our holiday TV ads have been running on all major networks, including FOX, NBC, CBS, and ABC. These holiday-specific commercials have aired so far this season to the tune of 683 million impressions. If you haven’t seen them yet, go to www.whatisit.com.

Online and Off - Rich Media and Printed Gift Guides
We continue to use online advertising as an effective way to reach buyers. This season, we'e been running rich media ads across several major portals as part of our integrated "IT" campaign. The ads tie into the "IT" TV ads, as a powerful complement to eBay’s message this holiday season. As our sellers know, this time of year it's important to have a winning marketing strategy, so we invested additional marketing dollars around key shopping days this season to ensure eBay owned all the ad placements on important portals like Yahoo! Mail, AOL Mail, and Hotmail.

Also shortly after Thanksgiving, 4 million households received Gift Guides in the mail. These printed catalogs are a great supplement to all the online marketing we're doing, and highlight gifting ideas across a variety of product categories.

Promotions and Features That Drive Buying
We had a great response to the November promotion we ran with Disney, and we just recently kicked off a new one to coincide with the release of the Rocky Balboa movie. I love that these promotions combine fun and entertainment with a strong incentive to buy on eBay. Participants get an automatic entry into a sweepstakes for daily prizes each time they win an Auction-style listing or purchase an item via Buy It Now.

Tools to Help Buyers Find the Right Gift or the Best Deal
We've also made tools to make it easier for shoppers to find that perfect gift this year. Check out our eBay Gift Finder which can take some of the stress out of finding that perfect item. For those buyers who enjoy the thrill of getting a great deal, we've created eBay Deal Finder so they can easily see items that have no bids and are ending soon.

These are just a few of the things we've been working on to help make your holiday selling season a success. On behalf of everyone here at eBay, I'd like to wish you Happy Holidays and here's to a great New Year in 2007!

Sincerely,

Gary Briggs
Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer
eBay North America

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

• Jen Cano, VP of Marketing of Hammertapnow.com, with how title word mistakes can affect the way listings sell.
• Robin Cowie, President of Worldwide Brands, Inc. rejoins us with the perennial favorite eBay Radio topic: product sourcing, but this time how to tie sourcing in with eBay charity opportunities.
• Michele Don Durbin, Senior Manager of Marketing with Skype to share news regarding the integration of Skype on eBay.
• Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta, Photographers and authors of "Shooting for Dollars: Simple Photo Techniques for Greater eBay Profits" with digital photography tips.
• Jason Miner, Host of PayPal Radio, with the latest PayPal site updates. Jason will stay on during the open phone segments in the last hour to answer PayPal questions.

Plus "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community. Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

If you can't catch the live show, you can always subscribe to the , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an  reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

If you can't catch the live show you can always subscribe to the podcast , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an  reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Your eBay Business - Year in Review
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, December 19th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. 2006 is coming to a close and it's time to take inventory - an inventory of much more than the products on your shelves! In this workshop, Lisa Suttora, Founder/CEO of What Do I Sell.com and best-selling author of "What to Sell on eBay and Where to Get It" (from McGraw-Hill publishers), is going to guide you through the steps you need to take to assess your current business status, analyze your best-selling products (and your slow sellers), provide you with checkpoints to help you make future product line decisions, and assist you in identifying the strengths and the weaknesses in your current business model. Once you know where you are, you can plot the course for where you want to be in 2007! Don't miss this year-end wrap up workshop!

25 Tax Savings Tips Before December 31st
This workshop will be held on Wednesday, December 20th from 10:00 am PT to 11:00 am PT. 2006 is almost over and once December 31st rolls around, most of your chances to take tax deductions are over as well. Please join best selling-author and CPA Diane Kennedy to learn 25 tax savings tips that you can take advantage of right now. This is one workshop you won't want to miss.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Go to www.ebay.com
• Click on Community at the top of the page
• Click on "Workshops" in the "Events" section
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshops Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Kathy Thrappas

Qualifying is easy. First, register to participate. You'll then get an automatic entry into that day's prize drawing every day you win a listing or use Buy It Now. This includes all auction-style and Fixed Price listings, as well as Store Inventory items from eBay Stores.

For a free bonus entry, name the Rocky movie pictured on our Do You Know Rocky? page. Each day we'll feature a new picture from a Rocky movie - if you submit the correct film title, you'll earn a bonus entry into that day's drawing.

eBay & Rocky Balboa Sweepstakes starts Friday, December 15th, so get in the ring and you could win!

Sincerely,

Kathy Thrappas
eBay Marketing

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Don Albert

I'm back today with more exciting news from Skype. For the first time, Skype is introducing a new subscription calling plan which will give users 12 months of unlimited SkypeOut calling to any phone within the U.S. and Canada. From now through January 31st, Skype users can sign up for this calling plan at an introductory rate of only $14.95 – that's over 50% off the regular price of $29.95. As an added bonus, anyone who subscribes before January 31st will get an additional free hour of International calling and $50 in coupons for Skype related gear.

If you're not already using Skype, download it here for free. To learn more about adding Skype to your listings, click here. We also invite you to join our Skype discussion board.

Sincerely,

Don Albert
Vice President and GM, Skype North America

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

• Rob Chesnut, Sr. VP, eBay Trust & Safety, with recent news and developments. Rob will stay on for open phone segments during the first hour.
• Marjie Smith, Founder & Executive Director of the Disabled Online Users Association, with a DOUA update.
• Chris Malta, eBay Radio Product Sourcing Editor and Founder and CEO of Worldwide Brands, with sound advise on finding products to sell on eBay.
• Andee Hill, Customer Service Manager of Escrow.com, will explain how the online escrow process works and how to protect yourself when selling or buying high ticket items on eBay.
• Cathy Gordon, a Writer/Analyst with Business Owner's Toolkit, with important tips on how to protect your customer's private information.

Plus "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community. Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

If you can't catch the live show, you can always subscribe to the , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an  reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

Be sure to check out the eBay Chatter Blog for Letters from Griff, and other stories about eBay and the Community.

If you can't catch the live show, you can always subscribe to the , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Introducing New Features for Half.com File Exchange
This workshop will be held on Monday, December 11th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. Interested in learning about new features of File Exchange for Half.com? Join the File Exchange team to learn about the enhancements, ask questions and get the help you need.

Thinking about your 2006 income taxes? If not, you should be!
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, December 12th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. Please join Phyllis Wischer, Lead Business Coach from Certified Provider KeepMore.net, as she discusses the importance of thinking about your 2006 tax return today! The time to do 2006 tax planning is before December 31st, not after. It is also time to think about all your business income and making sure you take all your allowable business deductions. Every lost deduction will only cost you more money at tax time. Don't you think it's time to keep more of your hard earned income? We do; and KeepMore can help!

Advanced Marketing Strategies
This workshop will be held on Friday, December 15th from 2:00 pm PT to 3:00 pm PT. Please join Janelle Elms, lead instructor with eBay University, author, and Silver PowerSeller and Phil Dunn, marketing and advertising writer and for the fifth installment of The 7 Essential Steps to Successful eBay Marketing workshop series. This session introduces advanced marketing strategies that increase sales volume and profit margins. We'll cover effective cross-selling, up-selling, promotions, psychological buying motivators and more. .

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Go to www.ebay.com
• Click on Community at the top of the page
• Click on "Workshops" in the "Events" section
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshops Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

• Rob Cross, Senior Manager with eBay Developer's Program, with the eBay Radio Developer of the month, Xavier Helgensen, CEO of Goindaba.com, featuring selling solution for books, music, movies and games.
• Jen Cano, of HammerTap.com, recaps the year with "What's been hot" on eBay and how market research can improve your sales for 2007.
• Christopher Spencer, President of “Born To Deal” and eBay University Instructor with holiday buying and selling tips.
• Jenn O'Neil with tips for keeping your children "cyber safe!"

Plus "The News" with Lee Mirabal, as well as the most important feature on eBay Radio: your calls! Call in during the show at 877-474-3302 (USA) or 001-858-678-8958 (Internationally) to talk with Griff and his guests or to ask a question and share your voice with the rest of the eBay Community. Remember, one lucky caller per week, selected at random, will receive an autographed copy of Griff's book, "The Official eBay Bible".

If you can't catch the live show, you can always subscribe to the , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an  reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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During the eBay Motors Parts and Accessories 50¢ Insertion Fee sale:

For regular auction-style and Fixed Price Parts and Accessories listings with a starting price above $9.99 on the U.S. Motors site (www.ebaymotors.com), the insertion fee will be capped at $0.50. All insertion fees less than $0.50 will still be charged at the normal rate. For more information about insertion fees during this promotion, please click here.

Listings created prior to December 5th, 2006 that are scheduled to start during the promotional period (December 5th, 2006) will be eligible to receive the promotional rate. Excluded are Vehicle listings, listings on international eBay sites, Live Auction listings, Professional Services and Store Inventory listings, and listings on www.ebay.com. For full details about the sale, please see our information page.

We hope you enjoy the eBay Motors Parts & Accessories 50¢ Insertion Fee sale!

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Jim "Griff" Griffith

Be sure to check out the eBay Chatter Blog for Letters from Griff, and other stories about eBay and the Community.

If you can't catch the live show, you can always subscribe to the , or access any past broadcast from the eBay Radio Archives. To subscribe to the podcast all you need is an reader (a portable MP3 player is optional). Visit www.wsradio.com/ebayradio for more information about subscribing to the podcasts and to listen to eBay Radio on your computer.

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Trending: Put Last Year's Slam-Dunks to Work for You
This workshop will be held on Tuesday, December 5th from 10:00 am PT to 11:00 am PT. Please join Jen Cano of HammerTap market research, a Certified Solution Provider, as she shows you how last year's top-selling products can help you predict how and when to list this year's hot sellers. As an added bonus and back by popular demand, Jen will use HammerTap to do some live, free research for you during the workshop hour. Take this rare opportunity to put Jen to work for you.

An Interactive Session with the eBay Staff - Ask Us to Research Products Live!
This workshop will be held on Thursday, December 7th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. Come armed with questions about how specific products are selling on eBay. Our eBay Marketplace Research experts will be on hand to research key product stats for you, and perhaps, even uncover ways your specific business can get the edge over the competition. This workshop is for sellers.

Get the Inside Scoop on one of the Fastest Growing Category on eBay!
This workshop will be held on Friday, December 8th from 11:00 am PT to 12:00 pm PT. eBay Motors “Parts and Accessories” is one of the fastest growing categories on eBay, with more than 50 million parts sold on eBay so far. In fact, an automotive part or accessory is sold on eBay every second. If you want to learn more about this amazing business opportunity then you should join the Terapeak team; Sarah Taheri and Dave Frey for their upcoming workshop. They will introduce you to some tools that you can use to learn more about this exciting category. They will cover researching the profit potential, how to review the sales history of some of the most successful sellers , researching the sales potential for products/brands, and using research to get started in this category.

Cyber Safety for Our Children the Series Workshop II
This workshop will be held on Friday, December 8th from 4:00 pm PT to 5:00 pm PT. Cyber safety for our children is a growing concern for parents and educators across the United States . Join NetSmartz's, Amber Lindsay and eBay's Community Outreach Program Manager, Cheryl Fujii for cyber safety suggestions you can implement at home or in a classroom environment. This workshop will target teenagers and the Internet. We strongly recommend teens and their guardians participate together in this workshop. Don't miss this great opportunity to discuss online safety with a NetSmartz expert! For more information on NetSmartz, please visit http://www.NetSmartz.org. You can also view our first Cyber Safety workshop here.

Workshops are hosted in discussion threads on the Workshops Board. To get to the Workshops Board:

• Go to www.ebay.com
• Click on Community at the top of the page
• Click on "Workshops" in the "Events" section
• This will bring you to the threaded Workshops Board.

To view archived workshops or to learn more about future workshop events, please check our Workshops Calendar.

Want timely reminders about workshops? We recommend two ways to make sure you never miss an important workshop:

• Sign up for the Workshops Information Group! By joining this group, you will receive an email notification reminding you about upcoming eBay Workshops. (To sign up for the Workshops Information Group, please click here.)
• Subscribe to the RSS feed for the Workshop board. When a new workshop becomes active, your RSS reader will be updated. (You can also subscribe to just the specific topic thread that interests you.) To subscribe, click on the button at the bottom of the Workshop board or thread. Copy and paste the feed URL into your reader to subscribe. For more information on RSS, please read our RSS Help page.

We look forward to seeing you there!

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Rachel Makool

eBay Groups are a great way to meet other members who share your interests. Want to meet other people who share your passion for Star Wars figures? Want a way to bring local sellers in your hometown together? You can find an existing group, or start your own, based on almost any topic. Plus, each group has their own discussion board, can create their own newsletters, photo albums, and polls and use a variety of other features.

Explore eBay Groups during the eBay Groups Holiday Open House Event and see what they have to offer.

Sincerely,

Rachel Makool
eBay Community Development