You may have noticed a new icon appearing in eBay search results. eBay began testing its Top Rated seller badge as part of a new program announced late last month along with news of many other changes coming to the site in the fall. It turns out that the announcement included so many feature- and policy-changes, covering so many areas, that it's impossible to give the announcement an aggregate thumbs-up or thumbs-down.

We wanted to gauge the temperature of AuctionBytes readers concerning eBay's July 27th announcement of the "SR2" changes, including the Top Rated seller program, so we conducted a survey, asking respondents to rate the changes separately.

Over 1,100 readers took the survey, and I was impressed by the many hundreds of comments left by respondents for each of the survey's 14 sections. We published the results in AuctionBytes Newsflash last week, and I've included a wrap-up in today's issue to highlight the key changes. Be sure you understand them, and don't be taken by surprise in September and October when eBay begins rolling them out to the site. Some of the changes have the ability to make a big impact on your pocketbook, as well as your rankings in search results.

One concern that I have is the effect of all these changes on customer service and enforcement. eBay laid off 10 percent of its workforce last fall, and laid off 700 of its customer service representatives in Canada in May of this year. With even experienced sellers confused about the new changes, it seems fair to ask whether those employees charged with enforcing the policies are prepared and on the same page as representatives advising users on compliance issues. Like many of the survey respondents, I'm taking a wait-and-see approach on just how all these changes play out as they roll out.

If you have ever thought about setting up a shop on Etsy, you won't want to miss today's article from Julia Wilkinson. She reports back on her first experience setting up a shop and listing an item on the handmade and vintage goods marketplace.

In July, we ran Part 1 of a 3-part series on Email Marketing on how to select the right tool for building an email marketing list. Lisa Suttora returns in today's issue with Part 2, covering the right way to build a verified "opt-in" subscriber list. Why do you need to get into the "email marketing mindset"? What is "WIIFM"? Lisa answers these questions and more to help you can build a quality list to drive sales and generate repeat business.

Today's issue also covers our usual turf: First Item Sold Online, This & That Roundup, Collector's Corner, and AuctionBytes Soundoff - letters from readers.

Finally, have you heard about invitation-only shopping sites, such as RueLaLa, ideeli and Gilt Groupe? You won't want to miss an article by Greg Holden, "Shoppers Flock to Daily Deals - By Invitation Only," in which he explains the concept of these membership ecommerce sites and presents some ideas on how you can emulate their success by trying a few techniques for your own business.

Thanks for reading.