July 2007 Archives

It seems like ages since we've spoken here. We've all been mad busy here at vzaar towers preparing to go live (we're calling it v-Day) and telling the world about us. Which brings me to today blog post.

Those of you who are steely eyed will notice that we have an addition to the about me page. Our number's have grown and we are now 5.

The new addition to vzaar is our fabulous Online Herald. The Online Herald started with us two weeks ago, and it feels like she has been here forever. In a good way. It's fabulous to have some start on the team, and feel like one of the team by the end of the first day.

We're counting ourselves very lucky that we have been able to get the Online Herald. She really impressed us all greatly before she started and has exceeded our expectations by several orders of magnitude since then. In face she is so ingrained and important to the team, that when she is off for a few days next week myself and the Social Wizard aren't entirely sure how we'll cope. The office is certainly going to feel a whole lot duller. I'm sure her old boss and team is missing her greatly and rather jealous of our good fortune.

So what's an Online Herald here to do? Well when I said above that we are preparing to tell the world about us, I really meant that she is.

However I'll let her tell you more herself, so look for a post soon. She might even tell you how she came up with v-Day over a pie. Or maybe just what the pie was.

Using videos on eBay means that you can show off what you’re selling in an engaging way with greater detail than is possible even with a clutch of brilliant images.

But as I discovered the other day when I was making some vzaar videos to sell some CDs, it’s easy to give away more than you intend. As I flipped over the reflective disc I not only showed off my scratch-free CD, I also inadvertently provided my viewers with a fleeting glimpse of my flat’s interior and a good look at my boat race.

Thankfully, I was fully clothed and had nothing to hide. If I had been nude, it would be called reflectoporn and for some of the great examples and a giggle, check out this page on snopes.

The most famous incident was the portly gentleman selling a copper kettle that had been burnished to a gleaming sheen. His nude body was clearly visible in the shiny surface of the kettle.

So as vzaar starts getting the world talking about and using videos in their eBay listings, I do wonder whether we’re about to embark upon a golden age of reflectoporn. Intentional and unintentional. We’ll see and we’ll be keeping an eye out for anything that crosses the boundaries of decency: we don't want anything on vzaar that breaks the eBay rules!

I recently sold another DVD on vzaar. I got this back from the buyer.

Hi.

Thanks for that. I am trying to get all the Coens films, yours makes 6 now.

The video idea is excellent it should negate any chance of bad feedback. The camera video is great I felt like buying it myself but I have just bought one on eBay (a duff one at that !!). V.G feedback will be left.

All the best J___

Our vzaar business cards are not normal business cards. They are of course the best thing to happen to business cards since business cards began. They are moo mini cards.

There are several reasons we went for moo cards

• The product is great. We love the small format and the thicker cards
• Moo lets us have different cards. Each of our cards come in 5 different colours
• Everyone we hand a card too notices it. Normally with business cards you forget it as soon as we get it. Everyone we have given a card too has commented on the cards and how cool they are. That's extra attention for us. Thanks Moo.
• We like to think the funkyness of the cards reflects that vzaar is a funky company too. We know moo is no ordinary company and we think neither are we. Moo cards are a statement by us that we want to stand out.
• Richard Moross was one of the speakers at Future of web apps earlier this year. There was a lot in his presentation that gave us thoughts and ideas for running vzaar.
• They say copy from the best. Moo has built it's concept by using other winning sites (i.e. flickr). We're doing a similar thing with eBay and this has given us a lot of inspirations
• And of course, moo cards are really really cool

It's really important to use your own products and to know your own platform. I'm doing about one listing a day on vzaar at the moment. Real world listings, not tests. This helps me find problems and bugs and issue or just learn how things can be improved. As a result we have a long list of things we want to improve and are working through them as fast as we can.

One of the reason Arena did such a good job with helping me pick flowers for my date (see my last post) was because they knew their products really really well. Had they just recommended roses or some generic flower I probably wouldn't go back in a hurry, not only because they didn't help me out but because they clearly don't think enough of what they sell to know everything about what the sell. But this is not the case and Arena is going from strength to strength.

The same thing can be said of almost anything, even smoothies or coffees.