I’ve been a long-time eBay user, and I’m even an eBay affiliate..

But eBay’s latest policy and fee changes are unwarranted. The straw that broke the camel’s back was the new feedback system would allow buyers to leave negatives for sellers, while sellers can not do the same should a buyer deserve it. This threatens the already fragile reputation system. As a result, sellers have organized a week-long boycott. As of yesterday, live auction listings have dropped by about 3%, from 14.5 million to around 14 million items.

eBay’s spokesperson told CNNMoney that the boycott “hasn’t had an impact on our listings.”

Nancy Baughman, an eBay PowerSeller who deals antiques, says it best. “I don’t think any sellers believe we can crush eBay in a week. We want eBay to acknowledge that these changes may not be the best for smaller sellers. I want eBay to make money, but can we make some too? I think they have a moral responsibility not to drive these people out the marketplace, especially considering the state of the economy.”

If you’re an eBay seller, please help the cause!

Last year, Search Engine Journal made quite a stir in the blogosphere when they condemned the nofollow link attribute. What a difference a year makes. Google made it abundantly clear that they’re not going to stand for paid links, and they’ve taken a tough stance on the issue. Unfortunately, the algorithm’s logic is flawed, and many sites have been unfairly penalized.

One of my own blog networks was affected by this mess, even though none of the sites had ANY paid links on them. Months pass, and Google still isn’t sharing any PR love with these sites. What’s a webmaster to do, when clueless advertisers put more value in the almighty PR instead of looking at cold-hard traffic statistics? Give in..

The first step? The blogroll. Unfortunately, Wordpress doesn’t make it easy to “fix” this issue, but thankfully I came across Justin Cook’s instructions on how to tackle this issue. Hopefully Wordpress makes this a standard feature in a future version, but for now this is a fantastic work-around that takes only a minute to implement.

In addition, I decided to tag all of the affiliate links in my sidebar with rel=”nofollow”. While it’s hard to say if this is necessary or not, I’ve decided to err on the side of caution. After all, how can Gooogle tell the difference between an affiliate link and a paid link?

Lastly, don’t forget about counters, chicklets, and other tracking icons on your site! Most of those link back to their own site.. Why give them any link love? Stick a nofollow on them, and you should be all set. All of your PR juice will be kept within your site, which will hopefully help give you a higher PR when the big G rolls out their next update.

After seeing both Mr. Javo and Tyler Cruz post about NeverblueAds this week, I figured it’d be fitting to start Free Swag Sunday with them.

Believe it or not, this is actually one of my favorite pens, and I find myself using it more than my grossly overpriced Mont Blanc pen! So.. Anyone want to buy a slightly used Mont Blanc pen??

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Only for me, I tend to lose steam on Fridays.. Sometimes, when the alarm clock goes off, I just turn on the TV and start watching Cheaters. Next thing you know, it’s 11am and I haven’t gotten any work done.

I find Fridays to be the busiest for me, as I’m trying to cram a TON of work into those 8 hours.. When the weekend rolls around, the fiancee wants me off the computer and doing stuff with her. Last week, we got to waste two days picking out items for our wedding registry.

Anyway, I stumbled across this collection of fake Demotivators posters, and it made me laugh. Hope you all enjoy ‘em.

Which one is your favorite?

Last week, John Chow made a post about using your credit card to earn cash rewards. This is a topic that I’m VERY well-versed in, as my business spends anywhere between $200-400K/yr, and I’m always looking for the best bang for the buck.

That said, earning a 1% cash-back return is just criminal! John states that he charged $112,554 last year, which breaks down to $9379.50 a month. Right off the bat, I’d suggest that he switch over to American Express’s new Plum Card. If you pay your bill within 10 days of the end of the billing cycle, you get a 2% discount. The discount is applied to your next month’s bill automatically. (If you spend less than $5000 in a month, you only receive a 1% discount - But at least you don’t have to wait 12 months to get paid!)

The card is free for the first year, after which you’re charged an annual fee of $185. People might balk at the annual fee, but do the math - In John’s case, he would have walked away with $2251.08 instead of the $1125.54 he actually received. Subtract the $185 fee, and he still would have been $940.54 ahead of the game!

If you don’t spend quite so much, or if you need more than 10 days to pay your bill, you might be better off with the AMEX Business Gold Rewards card. This was my card of choice until the Plum came out. You earn 1 Membership Rewards point for each $1 spent, but they also reward you when you hit certain spending thresholds. When you spend $20K in a year, you’ll earn an additional 5000 points. If you spend $50K in a year, you’ll earn an additional 20,000 points!

So if you spend $60K for the year, you’ll earn 60,000 points right off the bat, plus the 5000 points for reaching $20K in spending, PLUS another 20,000 points for reaching $50K in spending. You’ll walk away with 85,000 Membership Rewards points! Your points can be redeemed for incredible rewards from the finest names in travel, shopping, dining, and entertainment. It’s a great program, and you can check out what you can redeem points for at the Membership Rewards website.

The other card I use quite frequently is the AMEX Starwood Rewards card. Hotels aren’t cheap anymore.. Every time I go to New York City for a conference, I’m spending at LEAST $250/night. But the Starwood card takes care of that now. I’m actually staying at the W in Midtown Manhattan in a few weeks, and its costing me 10,000 Starwood points. A bargain, if you ask me! You earn 1 Starpoint for every dollar spent. In addition, they give you 10,000 Starpoints just for signing up for the card. When you spend $15K in a year, you’ll earn an additional 15,000 points! So sign up, spend $15K, and you’ll have 40,000 Starpoints at your disposal!

If you spend $15K on any other credit card, you’ll generally get back about $150. But with the Starwood card, you’re getting 40,000 points, which is good for 4 nights at a 4-star hotel in the heart of NYC.. Book that yourself, and it’ll easily run you $1000 or more! They also allow you to transfer points on a 1:1 basis to the frequent flyer programs of over 30 major airlines.

Happy spending!

Ever wonder what ringtone your favorite affiliate is sporting? Check mine out!

Yeah, I know the phone is old, but my trusty LG VX6000 has never let me down. I’ll upgrade to an iPhone when they offer a 16GB version with 3G for $399 or less. Until then, I can live without it.