( Table Of Contents )

1. Introduction
2. Volcanic Software News
3. eBay changes and additions
4. Online auctions in the news
5. Cool Auction Site of the month
6 . Closure
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Introduction

HWelcome to the April edition of the Auction Orbit newsletter. I first would like to send out an apology for not releasing a newsletter last month, but as you will soon find out I was busy putting finishing touches on some very exciting changes in regards to my site and software. If you are confused about the Auction Orbit and Volcanic Software titles both appearing in this newsletter, don't be. Volcanic Software was the previous name given to my website, but slowly the new name of Auction Orbit is replacing all instances of Volcanic Software. Either way, both titles refer to the same thing. The reason for the name change was merely to better illustrate what type of material is offered through my site and services. For complete details about the name switch, please visit http://www.volcanicsoft.com/newsite.htm. With that said, enjoy this month's newsletter!
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Auction Orbit News

Back in the February newsletter, I mentioned that I was working hard to complete a new version of Dominant Ad Creator and I was also in the process of redesigning my own site. Well since then, I have accomplished both goals and have just put finishing touches on the new site and software! I will briefly summarize the new site and the updated Dominant Ad Creator software below:

The Site
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After many months of work and three complete re-designs, I finally created a site that I feel is both easy to navigate and appealing to the viewers. The new site can currently be accessed either from http://www.AuctionOrbit.com or http://www.VolcanicSoft.com. As of this date, all of the actual files are hosted on the VolcanicSoft.com domain in order to ensure previous references to the site and files within it remain available. In time, the entire site may be switched to the AuctionOrbit.com domain - but this transition will not be fully completed for perhaps a year or more. Some of the benefits of the new site include:

• FREE high-quality tutorials, tricks, and tips
• A collection of free (and shareware) tools and utilities
• 125 rated and reviewed free resource sites
• Auction news and information
• A community chat and forum
• Frequently Asked Questions and better Dominant Ad Creator support
• Much more!

If you haven't yet done so, you might wish to visit the new site at http://www.auctionorbit.com and check out some of the content contained within! I am always open to suggestions or comments, so feel free to e-mail me and let me know your opinion of the new site. If you have any tutorial or site requests, please let me know and I will try my best to help you out.

Dominant Ad Creator
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Some of you may currently have Dominant Ad Creator 2.3 installed on your machine. This version was released at the beginning of April, and the main new feature was the 'Automated Submitting' tool to help speed up the eBay listing process. I stated when I announced the new version that I was unsure how long the submission tool would last due to the constantly changing eBay selling page. For three weeks I was able to provide updates for the users of 2.3 so that the submission tool would work successfully with eBay's site. However, eBay recently made some rather large changes to their selling forms which varied from user to user. For this reason, it became virtually impossible for me to release an update that would work without failure on more than just a few eBay accounts. I came up with a new and far better idea! I still had the desire to include some sort of submission utility with the software, but at the same time I wanted to ensure that the software would not be needing updates daily and would emain compatible with all eBay users. I wrote down a list of the most difficult tasks involved with listing Dominant Ad Creator ads. Using the list as a guideline, I was able to construct an 'Assisted Submission' utility which will give you all of the flexibility as the standard eBay selling page, but at the same time provides you with a variety of shortcuts to greatly decrease the amount of time it takes to get a listing up. Some of the valuable shortcut buttons include:

• Automatic Sign-in
• Title Insertion
• Ad Generation / Description Insertion
• Image Selector
• Gallery Selector
• Back and Continue buttons always visible

This new tool has been tested with eBay's US site and works perfectly for all three listing styles (standard, fixed-price, and real-estate). The utility also allows you to enter a custom selling URL and although untested, it may work with other eBay listing sites. The United Kingdom eBay site (http://www.ebay.co.uk) has been tested with the software and currently works without failure. For details, please refer to the Dominant Ad Creator FAQ available from my site. Other minor fixes were resolves with Dominant Ad Creator 2.3.1, and all-in-all it is much more stable than version 2.3 due to the removal of the previous automated submission tool.
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eBay changes and additions

One on-going change that has been taking place on the eBay site for the past few months is that of 'Category Roll-ups' and 'Item Specifics'. Every week, more sub-categories are being removed from the eBay site in attempt to simplify the category selection process and aid buyers in finding what they are looking for. To accommodate for the massive category losses, the main categories (such as DVDs or Books) now have an Item Specifics section within the selling page where you are able to enter the specific details of your listings - which have a similar effect as the sub-categories used to. There have been mixed feelings about these changes from the eBay community. Many have reported a loss in sales due to the new category roll-ups and claim that buyers have a harder time finding their items. EBay has stated that in the long-run, they are doing this to benefit the community and make their site easier to use.

A second enhancement to the eBay site is 'My eBay 2.0'. This feature is still in beta form, but you can access it by logging into the default My eBay page, then clicking on the link at the top. Don't worry, if you don't like the new format you can easily switch back! Some of the key new features in the My eBay upgrade include:

- Customizable Summary Page
- Easier Navigation
- Allow sellers to track number of watchers
- Fresh updated look

The final new feature implemented into eBay since the last newsletter is that users with an eBay Store can now receive traffic reports which will tell you details about your listing visitors (total number, returning customers, etc). You will need to have an open store and pay the Store fee to have access to this statistics feature.
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Online auctions in the news

Here's a very interesting news article AND auction link. On April 23rd, a listing was put up on eBay advertising a wedding dress. The title itself seamed pretty standard, but upon viewing the listing the reader was presented with a humorous story of a recently-divorced man and his encounter with the dress of his ex-wife. Along with the amusing description, the man in charge of the listing actually put on the dress and posed for the pictures shown in the ad. The auction started spreading like wild-fire - through forums, chats, newsgroups, etc... The counter in the listing soon soared well into the millions, and the bids were being placed by the dozens. Anyways, at the time of writing and even long after the auction has ended, the counter continues to increase as the auction seems to be growing more famous by the hour. Right now, the page counter is approaching 10 million! EBay also became intrigued with this auction and conducted an actual interview with the seller which can be found on their sit . The seller has now appeared on radio shows, news reports, and TV talk shows.

Listing: http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=4146756343
News: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,118586,00.html
Interview: http://www.wsradio.com/ebaybreakingnews/
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Cool Auction Site of the month

This month's site will allow you to see who the top 500 eBay users are based on the feedback they have earned. The list is categorized by month, simply click a month to see the top eBayers. Click on any username to be shown further statistics for their user account.

http://www.nortica.com/UserArea/Default.asp
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Closure

I hope you enjoyed this month's newsletter! In the next few months this newsletter may undergo some changes and sections may be added or dropped to better blend in with my new site. I am always looking for suggestions on ways to improve this newsletter, my site, or Dominant Ad Creator. If you would like to send me a message, feel free to reply to this message or use the contact form available on my site to get in touch with me. I respond to all messages, and try to do so as fast as possible.

Sincerely,

Matt
http://www.auctionorbit.com