September 2007 Archives

vzaar was very excited to be attending eBay university last weekend in Glasgow. This was our first eBay university and we thought it was brilliant. We were there to encourage new and experienced eBayers alike to start using video in their listings. The response was overwhelmingly positive and I'm very much looking forward to seeing many of the eBayer’s we met on the day videos up on the site. It was also good to see so many eBay staff there looking very dashing in their smart black eBay shirts. We also saw lots of familiar faces of eBay - Chris Dawson from Tamebay, the Dudleys from Postal Supplies and the guys from Channel Advisor. Having spoken to some experienced users, they let me know that were already using video and have been using YouTube as a supplier. However on hearing about vzaar they were very excited and much preferred the idea as it:

1. seemed much easier to use - no messing around with html
2. it was free of other advertising
3. and when buyers got to the end of the video, they wouldn’t be encouraged to switch to another users video. Like all sellers - the idea of losing your potential buyer to a link at the end of your video is NOT ideal.

The most interesting thing I noticed after people’s enthusiasm for video and vzaar was skepticism that such a good, helpful service was free. And as I assured everyone I met in Glasgow (at eBay Uni - not EVERYWHERE in Glasgow) vzaar as it is now will always be free. We will however, shortly be introducing more developed functionality which intend charge (very reasonable rates) for. But to reiterate - it will remain, as it is now, a free service. So with our nervousness at attending our first eBay university, we are positively brimming with enthusiasm about attending our second one in Manchester on November 10th. If you are going to be there - do come and pay us a visit and if you’re good we may even take you out for a drink...

Well things are moving at great pace here at vzaar. To make your listings even smarter our new offering to you is a very swish vzaar listing template. Never has making a listings look so good, been so easy! (and once again - I’ve just done it without a hiccup which just goes to show how easy it really is!)

You can now upload your video, choose to create your listing through vzaar, and opt in to using our template. It’s all pretty self explanatory from there and you can even preview what your listing looks like before it goes up.

Better yet, by using our template, you get an extra image in your listings as we grab one from the video you made. How good is that?! Answers on a post card.... or to email us if you can’t find a stamp.

It’s wonderful to see so many of you using the site. In these beginning weeks it’s good to see everyone embracing videos and trying it out. And your videos are only getting better and better!

... when you have video. For a while now, we've added the eBay picture for your listing or auction when you create an auction with video from vzaar. Now we do it when you add your video to an existing auction too.

So no need to worry about getting the picture up, just take a quick video and we'll do the rest. We know a lot of people are ditching cameras although these days and just getting camera phones. However phone manufactures don't make easy to get files off their devices often making this hard. Even the brilliant iPhone isn't supremely easy for
this. Now you can just upload your your video to m.vzaar.com and we'll do the picture for you. Job done.

Don't worry we only do this if you have no picture present. If you have a picture present we leave well enough alone and don't mess with anything. There's also a check box for this, so you can choose not to do if you so chose. Of course we make it so easy, why would you not.

We're live today. Five months ago we had an idea. Today we have a live site for eBay sellers to put video into their eBay listings and boy are we happy. Nothing like see the fruits of your labour come together (although in a crazy crazy day) and see people using and viewing your site.

We're now approved and on the official eBay policy in the UK,
Ireland, USA, Spain and Italy & even Down Under. Keep an eye out for more of Europe too.

Words cannot express how glad I am we're now in full running, approved by eBay and able to really move forward with our plans for additional functionality (file under: You-aint-seen-nothing-yet) and to really change eBay selling for the positive. Photos where so 2006.

We'll be at eBay University in both Glasgow (22nd September) and Manchester (10th November). Meanwhile upload a video and get automatically entered into our competition for a great Nikon Coolpix S500.