The world's 20th most popular blogger and also one of its bestselling authors, Seth Godin, kept a packed room rapt with attention on the first day of eBay Live, Thursday, June 14, 2007. With his trademark bald head and catchy, funny slides (the first one was an image of the giant words THE FINE PRINT), there was never a dull moment. Godin urged eBay sellers to break free from the pack and differentiate themselves in some way; to be excellent and become an expert, so they could stand apart from the legions of other products and sellers out there.

"I want to leave you with new ways of thinking - but also leave you uncomfortable about some things, he said. One thought was that "ideas that spread, win." Famous people sell more stuff than non-famous people.

One of the slides that had the most impact was a picture of shelves and shelves of pain relievers and related products. Godin pointed out one of them, an indeterminate blue box on one of the shelves, and said that he ignored the $100 million of advertising the brand manager for that product had spent, because he didn't need a pain reliever. "Your next listing is the blue box," he said.

He pointed out that people who specialize in things and who accumulate a fan base for their expertise can do very well: for example, a woman named Sarah sells beautiful specialty beads on eBay and has a community of people who care about her and her beads. And a funky store on a remote Canadian highway, Candy Shoppe, carries candy and treats from all over the world; the owner says people spend $65 per visit on average.

Why is it so hard to be like Rita and Sarah? There's a superstar shortage, says Godin. He says his latest book, "The Dip," is about "being the best in the world."

Why is it so important to be on the bestseller list? Because people talk about you - word spreads. "People love bestseller lists," said Godin. He used the book "The Da Vinci Code" as an example and took an informal poll - most of the people in the room had read it, but only after they'd heard about it from other people and it was already selling well.

And selling something is not often about what someone needs. Usually it's about what someone wants. He used the example of "Method" brand hand soap - "It's killing Procter & Gamble" - the bottle looks great, he said. But essentially it's about how the bottle looks.

"If you want me to talk about" your product, Godin said, "you'd better love it." He indicated it was best to focus on one type of thing, become an expert at it, blog about it, write a newsletter about it, and become the person other people recognize as an authority on it.

To get married, it's better to date people than to keep going randomly to singles bars, "so why are you not dating your prospects?"

"Permission lets you tell your story. It lets you teach consumers." I'd be happy to hear from people on eBay who sold to me," he said, "but no one ever asks me."

All marketers tell stories. "If cat food were really for cats, it would come in mouse flavor," said Godin, to laughter in the audience. He joked about the friend whose cat he catsat for who, according to the owner, "would only eat Fancy Feast," but in the end, fancy cat food is really about how it makes the cat owner feel, he said. It's the story the cat food marketer sells.

As an example of the power of being an expert, Godin mentioned a page a woman had created with Squidoo.com, a company Godin started that lets people create web pages about things they're interested in. Her page was about laptop bags, and became the #1 match for laptop bags on search engines. Some laptop vendors are getting 35% of their sales from this page.

In the Q&A part of the session, as sellers asked for advice to differentiate themselves, Gpdin suggested things like starting their own blogs and newsletters to engage in a dialogue with their customers. And "pick an umbrella that can support you. It means Hermes saying we don't sell cell phones. If you stand for antique cameras, don't you dare sell a digital camera."
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Julia Wilkinson is the author of "The eBay Price Guide" (No Starch Press, 2006, powered by Hammertap); and "eBay Top 100 Simplified Tips & Tricks" (Wiley, 2004-6); and Publisher, Yard Salers, http://www.yardsalers.net. Her blog: "bidbits," is at http://juliawww.typepad.com/bidbits