Navigating through eBay

As I’ve said before, the writer Thomas Wolfe was wrong: You can go
home again — and again. At least with eBay you can! Day after day millions
of people land at eBay’s home page without wearing out the welcome
mat. The eBay home page is the front door to the most popular e-tailing site
on the Internet.

Everything you need to know about navigating eBay begins right here. In
this chapter, I give you the grand tour of the areas you can reach right from
the home page with the help of links.

Homing In on the Home Page

✦ A navigation bar at the top of the page with five eBay links that can zip
you straight to any of the many eBay areas, as well as a powerful link
right below the navigation bar
✦ An important link to eBay’s Live Help
✦ A list of links to auction categories
✦ Links to other eBay companies, and the 29 international eBay sites

At the top of almost every eBay page is a search box that helps you find
items by title keywords.

Do not adjust your computer monitor. You’re not going crazy. You may
notice that a link was on the eBay home page one day but gone the next day.
The links on the eBay home page change to reflect what’s going on — not
just on the site but also in the world.

Home-page links, the next generation
If you look carefully on the home page, you can see several other links
that give you express service to several key parts of the site. Here are the
highlights:

✦ From Our Sellers: Click the link to visit the featured items near the
bottom of the page. Here at eBay, money talks pretty loudly, so a seller
can pay extra to feature his or her listing and maybe it will land on the
home page sometime during its run. eBay rotates six featured items
throughout the day so that as many sellers as possible get a shot at
being in the spotlight. When you click the From Our Sellers See All
Featured Items link, you’re instantly beamed to eBay’s Featured Items
section.

You can find everything from Las Vegas vacations to Model-T Fords
to diet products in the Home Page Featured Items section. Home Page
Featured Items are not for mere mortals with small wallets. They’ve been lifted to the exalted featured status because sellers shelled out lots
of money to get them noticed. All you need to get your auction featured
is $39.95 ($79.95 for Multiple Item listings), plus a second or two to click
Home Page Featured Item on the Sell Your Item form.

✦ eBay Companies: In the link area at the bottom of the page, you will find
links to the ever growing family of eBay — other eBay-owned companies.
Currently the list includes:

• Half.com. Half.com is a long standing Internet site where sellers offer
items at fixed prices. These items have a UPC, ISBN, or SKU. They
are not collectible items. The items sold on Half.com are books, textbooks,
music, movies, video games, and video game consoles.

• Kijiji. Free Classifieds? How cool is that? Kijiji (the Swahili word for
village) is a Web site for local classified ads. These are same kind of
ads that appear in the newspapers, but in this case, they’re online.
Kijiji has sites for major cities in 29 countries, including the following:
United States, Canada, Germany, Italy, France, Taiwan, China,
India, Japan, as well as Intoko, Turkey. To visit the site, go to www.
kijiji.com.

• MicroPlace. “Invest wisely. End poverty.” This is something unique,
a Web site of “microfinance” where you can invest in very small businesses
from every corner of the world. And you actually have the
potential to earn interest.

• PayPal. PayPal’s no secret. Visit Books II, III, and VI for the lowdown
on the Internet’s leading payment processor for small business.

• ProStores. An eBay company (at www.prostores.com) that will
help you set up your own business on the Web. The stores are integrated
with eBay — although you can also make a similar connection
with a regular hosted e-store.

• Rent.com. Need to rent an apartment or home? Look no further than
rent.com (www.rent.com). You’ll be able to find large numbers of
rental properties in most cities in the Unites States.

• Shopping.com. A Web-based price-comparison service. Shopping.
com has features to help shoppers make informed shopping decisions.
This site also has extensive product reviews and ratings from
across the Web.

• Skype. A communication service where users download a software
program that offers free calls over the Internet to other Skype users.
In addition, they can make calls to landlines and mobile phones for a
fee through SkypePro.

• StubHub. A service that acts as an online marketplace for buyers
and sellers of tickets for sports, concerts, theater, and other live
entertainment events. StubHub takes a 25 percent commission after
the sale occurs (10 percent from the buyer and 15 percent from the
seller).

• StumbleUpon. A Web browser plug-in that allows its users to discover
and rate Web pages, photos, and videos. Web pages appear
when the user clicks the “Stumble!” button on the browser’s toolbar.
StumbleUpon selects which new page to display based on the user’s
ratings of previous pages, ratings by their friends, and by the ratings
of other users with similar interests.

✦ Global sites: Links you to eBay’s international auction sites. From a drop
down menu, you may enter eBay Argentina, Austria, Australia, Belgium,
Brazil, Canada, China, France, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Ireland, Italy,
Korea, Malaysia, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Philippines, Poland,
Singapore, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Taiwan, Thailand, Turkey, and
(whew) the United Kingdom. The international sites are in the country’s
native language. It might be a good place to practice your third-year
French — or maybe not! Remember that after you leave eBay USA,
you’re subject to the contractual and privacy laws of the country you’re
visiting.

You may notice that the graphic links on the home page change from day to
day — and even hour to hour. If you’re interested in the featured areas of
the site, visit this page several times a day to see the entire array of special
happenings on eBay.

Bottoming out
At the very bottom of the home page is an unassuming group of links providing
more ways to get to some seriously handy pages. Here’s a guide to some
of the links you’ll find:

✦ Feedback Forum: This link takes you to one of the most important spots
on eBay. The Feedback Forum is where you can place feedback, respond
to feedback left for you, and find out whether you’ve forgotten to place
feedback on a transaction — all in one friendly location.

✦ Downloads: A link to eBay supplied software and toolbars. See Book II
for more on these super tools.

✦ Gift certificates & Gift Cards: Send an eBay gift certificate for any special
occasion. You can print it yourself, or eBay will send it to any e-mail
address you provide. The gift certificate is good for any item on the site,
as long as the seller accepts PayPal.

✦ Jobs: Click here if you want to work for eBay instead of through eBay.

✦ Affiliates: If you have your own Web site and want to make a few bucks,
click this link. If you sign up for the program and put a link to eBay on
your Web page, eBay pays you for new users who signs up directly from
your Web site (plus other bonuses). Click the link for the current details.

✦ Developers: If you develop software and would like to design some to
use with eBay, you can join the developers’ network.

✦ The eBay Shop: This link enables you to browse and buy eBay merchandise
from the eBay company store.

✦ eBay Mobile: eBay’s mobile service for cell phones. eBay.com
designed just for small screens. Stay connected to eBay from your
mobile phone browser.

✦ About eBay: Click this link to find out about eBay the company and to
get its press releases, company overview, and stock information. You
can also find out about eBay community activities and charities — and
even apply for a job with eBay.

✦ Announcements: Visit the General Announcements Board when you
want to know about any late-breaking news.

✦ Security Center: This link takes you to a page where concerns about
fraud and safety are addressed. Before buying or selling, it’s a good idea
to check out the Security Center.

✦ Policies: This is a good place to visit to brush up on the site’s policies
and guidelines.

✦ Government Relations: Get active in the politics of online selling and
buying. Join groups, send letters to congresspeople, make a difference!

✦ Site map: Here’s a second link to the eBay site map (the other link is
above the navigation bar).

✦ Help: For some reason, eBay felt the need to put another help link at the
bottom of the home page. Save yourself some scrolling and use the link
on the navigation bar!