eBay is launching three new blogs this week, joining other eBay blogs such as the eBay Chatter Blog (http://www.ebaychatter.com) and the eBay Desktop Blog as well as blogs devoted to its PayPal, Skype and Shopping.com properties.
The eBay Ink blog will launch on Wednesday afternoon and is an "official source for information, opinion and perspective on eBay Inc. It's also one employee's exploration and chronicles of the conversations happening inside eBay and outside of it too" (http://ebayinkblog.com).
The eBay Insider blog launched on Monday and is a "source for inspiration, trends and tips from eBay's team of unparalleled fashion, home, tech, toy, and pop culture experts" (http://ebayinsiderblog.com).
The WhatGives blog launched on Monday is a "social goodworking blog that's all about you and us, and the great things we can do together. The idea? Simple. The more we talk about what's going on in our heads and in our world, the better chance we have to make it better. The Internet is all about bringing people together, and what better reason to do that than for good?"
eBay Ink will be written and administered by Richard Brewer-Hay, who gave AuctionBytes a preview of the new blog on Tuesday. In his first posts, Brewer-Hay writes that the reason for the blog is because eBay needs to "become better listeners."
In an interview with Fortune Small Business in April (http://money.cnn.com/2008/03/06/smbusiness/ebay_ink.fsb/?postversion=2008030616), he made an admission that he had never sold anything on eBay, something that generated some criticism among some sellers.
Brewer-Hay, who joined eBay in January, told AuctionBytes he has since sold some items (he's garnered 10 feedback in the past month for a total of 17 feedback ratings, all received as a buyer, and has left 2 feedback ratings as a seller). The biggest excitement, he said, was watching people bid, and selling was a real rush. The biggest challenge in selling was the time perspective, and in one of his first sales, he said he learned the importance of communicating with trading partners.
"I have to practice what I'm preaching. I'm becoming an active user of eBay so I know what people's complaints are," he said.
Brewer-Hay tackled the point in a post titled, "So why eBay Ink?" and under "Why me?" wrote, "Because I'm an outsider, frankly. While some people will see this as a handicap, I believe others will see it as I and others here do, as an advantage. I'm being provided with an opportunity here to approach and report this company's story from the perspective that many of you share (i.e., from the outside looking in). I have no delusions of this being an easy assignment, nor beliefs that I'll always be absolutely objective, but I'll try…"
eBay Ink includes a feed to external blogs that will display three recent posts considered most important ("a collection of eBay news and links from around the web"). Another feed will display recent internal eBay blog posts, and the Blog Roll links to official eBay blogs.
Brewer-Hay said he welcomes comments from readers. The blog contains a link to its Comment Policy on the bottom of each page, which reads:
We want to hear from you and encourage comments, critiques, questions, and suggestions. We ask that you simply stay on topic, respect other people's opinions, avoid profanity, offensive statements, illegal content, and anything else that might otherwise violate our standard terms and conditions.
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eBay has been accused of censoring its Discussion Board posts. Brewer-Hay, who has a marketing and public relations background and previously worked for Adam Curry (of MTV fame) at PodShow, will likely find a challenge in being the middleman between his blog readers and his eBay bosses.
Brewer-Hay ended his first eBay Ink "welcome" post with the words, "So, welcome to yet another corporate blog. A blog where comments are encouraged, feedback welcome, opinions wished for, external blogs highlighted and where yours truly will be found wearing a flak jacket as he types. Game on."
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http://blog.auctionbytes.com/cgi-bin/blog/blog.pl?/pl/2008/3/1204858211.html
