At long last... I'm excited that we've just added a new feature to WatchCount.com. Until now, to see most watched/popular items you needed to specify a keyword phrase or category on our search page. No longer. Simply by omitting any keywords phrase and category selection, you can now see the most watched items across an entire eBay site! The results are nearly identical to eBay Pulse, so you can get Watch Count data for those Pulse items you've been curious about, and the few runners-up that don't quite make the cut onto Pulse but are still heavily watched.

This feature works for each of the eBay international sites we currently support. Note that eBay considers its US Motors site distinctly separate from the main eBay.com site, so most-watched for eBay.com won't take into consideration any super-popular cars and trucks. (By contrast, other eBay countries' vehicle items are included within their respective sites, so you'll often see some at the top of that country's most watched list in our search results.) If you want to see the most popular eBay Motors (US) items, just select the "Motors" category while in the eBay US mode of our site.

In other news... If you haven't done so already, please take our quick 1-question survey located at the bottom of search results on our site. We'd like to know what feature you'd like incorporated into the site next.

Also, if you don't mind having our listing on your Watch List for a while, please click the link in the footer of this post to "vote" for us here on eBay. Thanks for your support!

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

Please click here to vote for us (our listing will be added to your Watch List).

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.

Did you know that you can access our site by visiting HowManyEyeballs.com ?

When you get there, just don't forget to multiply by two. ;-)

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.

We just finished adding another free tool to WatchCount.com: the Dynamic Watch This Item Link. I know it'll save a bunch of sellers a bunch of time.

As you may know, encouraging shoppers to add your item to their Watch Lists can bring them that much closer to the item: they're reminded of the item in their My eBay page; eBay emails them just before the listing ends; if the item is relisted, eBay sends another email. (There's even some speculation, and perhaps evidence, that a higher Watch Count can improve your item's placement in Best Match search results.) Can't hurt, right?

If you're seeing under 20 watchers on your item but getting no bids, you've probably learned the hard lesson that "watchers doesn't equal buyers" -- at least in that under-two-dozen range. Once you break past 20-30 watchers it becomes much more likely that you'll be getting at least that first bid, probably more. Can getting more watchers lead to more bids? Maybe.

To encourage watchers, as a seller you may already be manually adding Watch Links to your listings. You know how cumbersome it is to have to revise the listing immediately after posting, else your custom Watch Link with flashy graphic or in-your-face font size won't actually do any good.

That's where our Dynamic Watch This Item Link comes in... It's a standard 1-shot URL you drop into any or all of your listings instead of a manually built Watch Link, and you don't need to revise the listing to complete the link. Pretty cool, eh? It dynamically detects your item and eBay country-site and forwards your visitor through a properly-built Watch Link when they click the link.

Additionally, you can customize the Dynamic WTI Link. For your purposes it's really just an HTML anchor tag that you'd flank around any text or image of your choosing (behind it is some clever software we wrote to do the magic :) .

If you're using our free Widget, you'll see the Link comes alongside it by default, adding a miniature "double-punch" to your marketing efforts for that listing.


Oh, I forgot to mention the most popular 4-letter word in marketing - the Dynamic WTI Link is free. Get it here.

As usual, comments or questions below.

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.

We'll soon be changing the standard WatchCount.com Widget skin from its current look to a new skin. This change will go into effect automatically on Wednesday, July 30, 2008 at 9:00 am PDT (eBay Time) and will affect all current/live Widgets in place on eBay pages, as well as new Widgets going forward. Exception: if you've customized your Widget to designate a certain skin, you'll continue to display your specified choice; the Widgets in your listings won't change their appearance when the general cutover happens.

If you're like most sellers who use our Widget, you won't need to make any adjustments anywhere or worry about anything; just sit back and enjoy a sleeker look. :-)


I think this new skin has a cleaner, brighter feel to it that hopefully will be embraced more easily by both sellers and buyers. Of course if you'd prefer the old skin, or any of our other ones, please check out our selection of skins and apply your choice in your own Widget. You can even get in contact with us if you're interested in getting a custom skin.

If you're unfamiliar with our free Widget, as you can see in the above examples it displays your item's Watch Count automatically within the body of the listing, many times contributing to shopper interest and possibly bidding activity. It's free and easy to install (just cut n' paste some standard code). Get the full scoop and HTML code by clicking on either of the images above.

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.

As you may know, visitors to your listings can click on one of the Watch This Item (WTI) links/buttons provided in the header of every eBay item description page. Doing so adds the item to the visitor's watch list so they can keep tabs on it. This serves as a sort of bookmark for the user in their My eBay page, whether they are a bidder, a potential bidder, another seller, or just a casual onlooker. eBay sends a reminder email near the close of the listing to help encourage bidding, and if the item is relisted the watcher gets another heads-up in their inbox.
Moreover, sellers can see how many watchers they've accumulated on their item by checking their My eBay page -- and many times you can even see that figure for yourself by using WatchCount.com, or if the seller is using our free Widget in their listing.

This "watch system" benefits all by keeping users in closer touch with items they're interested in, and it acts as a "vote" amongst the eBay community for how popular an item is. As a result, you may wish to consider adding suggestive text within your listing that directs visitors to click on one of those Watch This Item (WTI) links. Many people already know about the usefulness of those links, but many people don't.
Now, if you've done this already, you may consider going a step further, as some sellers have done, and building your own Watch This Item links within the item description area itself. I call these "inline Watch This Item" links. You can take a piece of text, or even a picture, and turn it into a link, such that by clicking on it one gets the same effect as having clicked on one of the eBay-provided WTI links at the top of the listing page.

Some sellers may use a humble directive such as "Click here to watch this item", while others use creative photos, images, and even surveys (right within the listing!) to get their visitor's attention -- and their click. And of course, garnishing a high enough Watch Count can land your item on one of the eBay Pulse pages, multiplying your item's exposure not just on eBay but around the 'net via eBay affiliate RSS feeds and Editor Kits.

So, with that lengthy introduction behind us... How does one go about creating their own inline WTI links within the item description? It's pretty easy, actually. You just need to know a tad of HTML, and be willing to make a revision to the auction/item listing into which you'd like to place inline WTI links.

I'll assume you already know how to make a text or image link in HTML. (If you don't know that, there are plenty of quick resources on the 'net you can find with any search engine.) Once you've done that, you need to make the href attribute of your link be this:

As you can see, you'd place the item number at the end of the link. (I'm not sure if this link works outside of eBay.com US, but you can easily figure out the proper link prefix for your international eBay site by examining the provided WTI link at the top of an eBay item page.)

An issue with this process is that when you are designing a listing description for a new item, you won't have the eBay item number until after you launch the auction/listing. Subsequently, to complete the inline WTI link, you need to revise your listing so that you can insert the item number.


If you are using our free Widget in your listing to boast your item's Watch Count and encourage bidding, adding either instructive text or your own WTI links can help increment the Watch Count and make your item more appealing.

Tip: As you can see up above, you can add such inline WTI links in other places 'round the net, or close to home on your own eBay blog. :)

So, is this process of creating inline WTI links within eBay policy? Good question. I'm not completely sure. I don't think there is a policy prohibiting it, and I've never gotten a clear answer from eBay myself about its acceptability. However, from what I understand (via my own listings, others' listings, hearsay, etc.), the practice is generally regarded as acceptable, provided that you inform the visitor what will happen when they click the link. If you say something as simple as "Click here to watch this item" you probably won't be bothered by eBay.

Comments? Questions? As usual, the comments area below is open.

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.

We've just added a new skin, "silver", to our array of skins. If you're already customizing your WatchCount.com Widget, you can start using it right away as an alternative to the default skin. (If you haven't customized your Widget, it's easy. Instructions are here.)


If you're unfamiliar with our Widget, it displays your item's Watch Count automatically within the body of the listing, many times contributing to shopper interest and possibly bidding activity. It's free and easy to install (just cut n' paste). Get the rundown and HTML code by clicking on the image above.

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

See the WatchCount.com FAQ... What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

I'm really excited about a new add-on widget to our site that enables eBay sellers to display their item's Watch Count within the body of the listing(s). It's pretty cool: you just slap a simple piece of our HTML code (no Javascript, no Flash, etc.) into your listing and when the page is viewed, the item's current Watch Count is shown (with some minor caveats).


While some sellers prefer to keep their items' Watch Counts hidden or below the radar, we know that other sellers feel that the display of a potent Watch Count value can possibly entice shopper interest and activity. Our Widget enables that figure to be exhibited publicly.

A Watch Count can be a measure of item popularity, not unlike user voting/flagging systems at social media sites (for example: Digg.com). A brief comparison of 3 eBay item popularity metrics is on our Widget FAQ.

There are customization options for the WatchCount.com Widget, such as the ability to have the Widget automatically hide itself for low Watch Counts, or additional skins to use.

It's all laid out, including the short HTML snippit to grab to implement the Widget, here.

-Jake

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

See the WatchCount.com FAQ... What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

We're happy to announce that we've added 2 more countries to our growing list of supported international eBay sites. Visitors interested in researching popular items in eBay Canada (English) and eBay Australia can now do so at WatchCount.com .

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

See the WatchCount.com FAQ... What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

At long last we've finally upgraded the software behind WatchCount.com to handle international eBay sites. Now that that's taken care of we can begin to roll out international support country-by-country. This means that visitors can see the most popular eBay items (and their Watch Counts) at eBay sites 'round the planet -- not just on eBay US.

Our first international eBay site is eBay UK. (Most of our non-US visitors come from the UK, so we tackled that one first.) You can now see what items are ranked as most popular by eBay users on eBay.co.uk . Cool.

Keep an eye on the site/country selector pick-list for availability of more international eBay sites to come. And if you have a preferred eBay site you'd like to see included sooner rather than later, please let us know and we'll see what we can do.

And as always, if you come across any bugs, please give us a holler. Thanks!

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

See the WatchCount.com FAQ... What's the most popular 3-letter domain name selling on eBay right now?

Some visitors to our site want to know what it takes to get onto the eBay Pulse pages - how many watchers do those Pulsers accumulate to earn a spot on Pulse? eBay won't show you the Watch Counts, but by using WatchCount.com you can find out for yourself. Here's how:

Stroll on over to WatchCount.com and choose a category that you're interested in (don't enter any keywords), then click the "Show Me...!" button and you'll see the top watched items in that category.

Then click on one of the eBay Pulse links near the top or bottom of the page to open Pulse into a new window. Then select the same category as you did at WatchCount.com and you should see a nearly identical list. Notice that our site will reveal the Watch Counts that don't appear on eBay Pulse.

Unfortunately our site can't quite wrap its hands around the list on the main eBay Pulse page (most watched across the entire eBay site), but here's an easy remedy: You can discover the Watch Counts of individual items on that main Pulse page - and many other eBay items - by following these simple steps.


I just uploaded a video onto YouTube that illustrates this process, so you can follow along with the video as well.

www.WatchCount.com : Revealing how many eyeballs are glued to popular eBay items...

Please click here to vote for us (our listing will be added to your Watch List).

eBay Sellers: Place our free Widget in your listings to stimulate buyer interest.