If you're an event planner, there's a new Web service called Eventsbot that's set up to help you with some of the logistics of promoting, and selling tickets online. If you're familiar with EventBrite, Eventsbot isn't too far off: just set up your event, set ticket prices, promote it, and Eventsbot takes a small cut of the sales as its fee. The service is aimed mainly at event planners, but if you're looking to host a small event with controlled price ticketing, services like this can be a little more extensive than basic party invite sites, or build-your-own ticket sellers like Zaptix or TS.com.
Eventsbot comes in two flavors, a standard and premium. The standard is free, although you're not getting some of the more advanced features like event page customization, invoices and payments via PayPal, and integration of the invite page into your site's domain. Signing up for the premium service doesn't require a monthly fee or any contracts, instead the service charges a 2 percent fee on every ticket sold.
If there's anything to be said about improving the service, I found many of the hosted events didn't look very good. This can be remedied by "skinning" them with your site's CSS, but in terms of page layout and readability, I'm more impressed with EventBrite's offerings, as they're slightly easier on the eyes. Considering these pages are a front end for people to pay money and decide whether or not they're coming, first impressions can make a big difference.
Other event planning services include the aforementioned EventBrite, 123 Signup, Acteva, and RegOnline.
This invite isn't much to look at, but if you're an Eventsbot premium member, you can skin an event with your site's CSS.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
Today eBay launched a standalone Facebook app to let users browse eBay and show off their auctions to friends on the social network. This is hot on the heels of their slick "eBay to Go" Flash widget that made its migration to the Facebook apps platform late last month.
The new app lets you link up your eBay account to your Facebook profile and share items you've put up for auction with your friends, along with making your eBay watch list public to friends who are using the app. The integrated eBay search will pull up identical results to what you'd find when searching through eBay's basic search tool, although it's noticeably missing some of the nicer, advanced power user tools like being able to browse up to 200 listings at a time, and limit results by seller reputation.
Once you've found something that piques your interest, you can add it to your watch list (which cross-posts to your profile's mini-news feed), or share it via Facebook's two-pronged share tool. You can also click the "buy" link which will shoot you off to the item's auction page on eBay.
That's the entirety of the app, but let's take a minute to look at what's missing compared to Facebook's own Marketplace app and buying and selling infrastructure that already exists. The best way to do this is with a chart:
The bottom line is that this new app is a decent way to show off your eBay items, but not nearly as good looking or simple as the eBay to Go widget from a month ago. Sure it's more social than the widget, but it's not nearly as user friendly as the pre-existing marketplace service. If I were eBay, I'd be focusing on ways to create auction listings from within Facebook, along with ways to port over your current Facebook Marketplace listings.
Shopify, which serves up do-it-yourself sales pages to sell your all sorts of items (including your junk, as Rafe experimented with in his hands-on) launched an interesting new feature this week called Marketplace. It links up people's Shopify stores to a central index that can be searched, sorted, and browsed by anyone and everyone. Owners of each Shopify store must opt-in to the program to be included, in the hopes of selling an item, or being discovered through the centralized directory. Shopify is also releasing an API in the coming weeks that will let developers tap into the new data stream with their own apps. There's already a widget for Apple's Dashboard that serves as an example of what you can do.
The search experience itself is lightweight and easy on the eyes. Results can be sorted by tags, product type, and the vendor--which is helpful because items tend to get lumped together. Each item has its own photo and short description, along with links to the parent store.
Of course you're not going to find nearly the scope of items that you'd find compared to services like Google product search, or established classified listings like Craigslist or eBay, but keep in mind that Shopify is indexing a list of about 20,000 smaller shops, and many of the offerings are niche.
If you've got a Shopify shop online, you can now have it made searchable for others to see by Shopify Marketplace.
(Credit: CNET Networks)
As a Facebook user, I've recently begun to enjoy one of the side effects of its growing user base: selling stuff. Historically, I've often flocked to Craigslist to fence off my aging electronics. I live near a college town, and lately I've noticed it's become a whole lot easier to find buyers since the launch of the Facebook marketplace and the f8 apps platform. Here are five really solid applications on Facebook to get rid of your unwanted goods and maybe even make a buck on the side.
Facebook Marketplace. This is my personal favorite, since it's free, and you can use it to both sell and find things to buy. Since sales are attached to people's presumed real identities, your chances of avoiding fraud and any other criminal activities are a little better than on Craigslist or eBay. You can add your own item, complete with a handful of pictures, or list things you're looking to purchase. It's very much like Craigslist, although you have the option of limiting listings by network. For example, say I want to sell my ugly tan couch, but I don't want to people at work to see it and make fun of me. I can limit viewership to just the networks I want, or open it up for everyone on Facebook to see.
Swap Roll, as the name would suggest, is a big virtual swap meet for books, movies, music, and games. You haggle for things you want with what you have. If it can't find somebody who has what you're looking for on the Facebook network, it will give you links for the items on Amazon.com. The stuff you've got resides on your profile both as a minifeed news item and in a box. People who want your stuff can just click each item to offer you something in return. This is one of those ideas that's really great, it just needs a bunch of users to give it traction.
Surkle, like Swap Roll is another swapping tool. Unlike Swap Roll, however, it provides you with a swap system that removes the need to meet or trade items in person. It also lets potential swappers see how many others are vying for your goods, including what they're offering in return. Like eBay, each item is given a limited lifespan of trade time, and swappers have tools for leaving positive and negative feedback.
List your eBay auction items right on your Facebook profile.
(Credit: CNET Networks)eBay to Go. This widget is nearly identical to the one we wrote about a couple months ago. It lets you add one or more eBay auctions to your profile in the form of a slick looking widget. Other Facebook users can bid on the items, or take a look at whatever else you're selling if you set the widget to simply display your newest items. This widget isn't quite as handy as Facebook's own marketplace, but it's the best-looking of the lot and gives you eBay's entire user base. It's also helpful if you need to get the word out, since your friends can put it on their own profiles, too.
See also: the eBay Auctions Facebook app
JunkDepot is a catch-all classifieds service that takes your listing and posts it to your Facebook profile, Google Base, and Edgeio. It's also hooked up with Rapleaf so others view and vote on your online reputation. Unlike some of the other classified services on Facebook, you can browse for items to buy on a large Google map, and sort them by geographical region or by the groups you're in.
These are just a few of the classifieds services listed on Facebook right now. There are currently about 50 in the category. If these don't suit you, there are always some absurd ones you might enjoy.
eBay has a neat new way to promote your items for free. Users can take any item listed on the auction service and widgetize it using a really simple editor. There are three options to choose from: single item, multiple item, and search. The multiple items widget has a scrolling display of item images, and is good for Powersellers, or anyone who is selling a few things at a time. What's great is that you don't even need to sign in to eBay to make one, just an item number.
When you're done creating a widget, you can embed it in a number of blogging services and social networks like MySpace, Blogger, and Wordpress. I find it quite interesting MySpace is letting users embed auctions to their profile pages, especially after the whole Photobucket ordeal a few weeks ago; although in this case, it's not corporate advertising.
My favorite, and the one I've embedded below, is the single item widget which features a real-time countdown until the end of the auction. There's also a thumbnail viewer for any pictures, and status information like the bid and view counts. The one thing missing is a way to bid on the item without leaving the page, something I think would do well given a built-in login option.
Related: Wipbox: eBay and Craigslist for dummies
[via TechCrunch]
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