Section A.2. Start Spreading the News(letters)

A.2. Start Spreading the News( letters )

eBay keeps its community informed about what's going on through a variety of newsletters delivered right to your email inbox. If you want to read feature stories about other eBayers, reminders about upcoming workshops (Section A.5.1) or the next eBay Radio broadcast (Section A.3), or to be among the first to hear about new eBay features and enhancements, there's a newsletter for you.

A.2.1. Specialized Newsletters

eBay uses eBay Groups (Section 10.1.2) to send out email announcements on a bunch of different topics. To see what newsletters are currently available, go to Community Groups News & Events. The list of newsletters appears in Figure A-2.

A.2.2. The Chatter

The Chatter , shown in Figure A-3, is eBay's general community newsletter, published online monthly. It features news, behind-the-scenes stories about eBay and its staff, tips for buyers and sellers, a question-and-answer column, pointers on safe trading, and stories about other eBayers. To see what's in the latest issue, click the navigation bar's Community link; then, under News, click The Chatter .

Tip: Thousands of eBayers read The Chatter each month. If you're a seller, you can use this newsletter to expand your marketing reach. At the top right of The Chatter's front page is an email link you can use to suggest stories. Try pitching a story featuring yourself or your eBay business. Make it newsworthy instead of just trying to sell stuff. Aim for a story that will interest the community, like how you met your spouse collecting antique postcards on eBay or how you've turned your home into a museum showcasing your eBay- acquired collection of mechanical banks. Read through some of the stories in recent and back issues of the newsletter to get ideas about what The Chatter likes to publish.

Figure A-2. The News & Events category of eBay Groups lists eBay-sponsored announcements on various topics. To sign up, just click the newsletter you want, such as eBay Announcements, eBay PowerSellers News (which anyone can join), eBay Workshops Calendar, and so on. From the group's Welcome page, click the Join Group button to start receiving email newsletters on that topic.

Figure A-3. To read one of The Chatter's featured articles, click the "Read more" link of the story you want, or look in the lefthand menu's Featured Articles section and click the article title. Look under Inside The Chatter for monthly columns . The Helpful Links section lets you look at previous issues of The Chatter (Chatter Archive) and sign up for email notification of new issues (Chatter Mailing List).

If you'd like to be notified by email when a new issue of The Chatter is out, you can sign up through eBay Groups (Section 10.1.2). To do so, on The Chatter's front page, click the Chatter Mailing List link. On the sign-up page that appears (Figure A-4) click the Join Group link.

Figure A-4. In the upper-right corner, click the Join Group link to sign up for notification of each new issue of The Chatter. The links in the left-hand menu become active when you've joined. The number in parentheses after Members shows how many current subscribers there are. The "Click here" link opens a new window with the current edition of The Chatter.

A.2.3. Seller Newsflash

From time to time, eBay sends out Seller Newsflash, an email newsletter for sellers, shown in Figure A-5. It contains articles of interest to sellers, but nothing that you can't find elsewhere on the siteby going to Seller Central, for example (Sell Seller Central). Its worth getting if you like to read occasional selling tips.

You can find the latest online version of Seller Newsflash via a link on many of the category home pages; look under Category Community Links for a Newsletter link. To subscribe to this newsletter, go to My eBay eBay Preferences, find Notification Preferences, and then click View/Change. On the Change Your Notifications Preferences page that appears, turn on the checkbox that says eBay Email. When theres a new newsflash, it'll arrive in your email inbox.

A.2.4. Newsletters for Buyers

eBay Store owners can send out up to five newsletters related to their stores (page219). If you're a buyer with a favorite eBay Store or two, you can subscribe to these newsletters. Not every Store offers a newsletter, but those that do typically send out information you can really use: new items, sales and promotions, and special deals for subscribers.

To see whether your favorite eBay Store offers a newsletter:

From eBay's home page, click eBay Stores .

The eBay Stores home page appears.
In the Find a Store section, type the name of your favorite eBay Store into the text box and then hit Search Stores .

A page of search results appears.
Click the link to the eBay Store you're looking for .

The Store's front page appears.
On the Store's front page, click Add to My Favorite Stores .

The Add to My Favorite Sellers and Stores pages appears.
If the store has a newsletter, the kind of newsletter it offers appears under Email Communication Preferences. Turn on the checkbox next to the newsletter you want, and then click the Add to Favorites button to save your preferences and begin receiving newsletters .

Note: Store newsletters may be regular or few and far between, depending on how often a given Store owner can (or wants to) get them out.

Figure A-5. eBay doesn't update Seller Newsflash very often. You might have tulips blooming outside while you're reading an issue that discusses winter holiday sales. Many categories (but not all) have their own version with a story or two targeting issues of special interest to sellers in that category; check a category's main page (click Buy on the navigation bar, then click a category name and look for a Newsletter link) to see whether your favorite category has a specialized version of Seller Newsflash.