By Aaryn
@ Pimp My Strides

On September 10th I posted about Tazbar, a new auction site, based in the UK but internationally accessable, and posed a few questions and thoughts about its strong start-up and longer term chances.

As I'm not inclined towards disparaging the humble beginings of those who are prepared to put 2+ years of research, development & finance into their business passion; my comments were (I hope) quietly positive and supportive, without over-hyping Tazbar's start and pretenting they are currently anything but one of many tiny blips on eBays' radar.

Well its two months on. Their 1st TV advertising campain is in full swing, the 12,000 listing start has multiplied into nearly 60,000 and the professional media are starting to catch up with the story so far

UK Auction Site Tazbar Runs TV Commercials
Tazbar Review - Web-User - The UK's biggest selling internet magazine
Tazbar Auctions seeks to challenge eBay's dominant market position

For other professional eBay sellers & bloggers who didn't do their blogging homework. Are happy to prematurely consign Tazbar to the 'failed eBay wanabe bin' already; and didn't think it would even hold its own against the most established UK auction alternative eBid ... checkout Tazbar's climbing Alexa Ranking Growth. It may be a bug on eBay's Alexa windscreen, but it's already big enough to be a pain in ebid's proverbial.

By Aaryn

@ Pimp My Strides

A most welcome piece of information dropped into my inbox this afternoon. How to protect personal computers from hacking and viruses etc… FOR FREE!

If you're anything like me, you probably take your computer's security pretty seriously and have been prepared to pay aprox £50 a year for Internet security suites from companies like McAfee and Norton so that you can play and shop online with some piece of mind.

But before you grudgingly get your wallet out for the next annual expensive upgrade, take two minutes to read this article by the UK's favourite finance journalist, Martin Lewis.

Even better, while you're there, take a few seconds to sign yourself up to his brilliant newsletter and add the homepage and forum to your favourites. It'll be the best moneysaving two minutes you've spent all year!

AVG, AVAST, Pandasoftware and Lavasoft are a few of the numerous reputable companies quoted in his article that offer non-commercial customers quality PC security freeware!

How? Good question. Usually these companies make their money by providing businesses with commercial level virus protection and technical support etc…  to promote their professional services they offer free quality domestic versions.

Ok so it may not save Pimp My Strides from anteing up for our next upgrade fees… but at least we can be happy in the knowledge that our commercial contribution is helping to save you, our customers, a very tidy £50 quid every year

… and if you need any help spending it just ask ;o)

By Aaryn
@ Pimp My Strides

It's official. Today Prada released the name of their new face for the Miu Miu spring / summer '07 campaign, and it's Hollywood's favorite "Mean Girls" Lindsey Lohan.

In London over the weekend, to shoot the new season ads with world-renowned photographers Mert & Marcus; Prada confirmed today that Lohan is the latest celebrity to win a highly coveted modeling contract with the Italian fashion house.

Following in the footsteps of Rachel Evan Wood, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Chloe Sevigny and my personal favourite Drew Barrymore. The trend for celebrity modeling continues undaunted while thousands of professional models must be crying into their Jimmy Choo's!

source: All Headline News

By Aaryn
@ Pimp My Strides

A philosophical blog entry today. I wanted to share a moment today that made me giggle ... and then made me think.

Two lovely little old ladies accidentally wandered into our high street shop today and had a look around. I started chatting with them, answering their questions and so the conversation naturally developed until...

Lady #1 - "...you have another shop, you also run? Where is it?"

Aaryn - "It's on the internet"

Lady #1 - "Oh not much good for me. I don't have a car"

Lady # 2 "Shouldn't be a problem... There's bound to be a bus that goes there"

Aaryn - Silence [accompanied by a broad smile and excessive amounts of blinking]

I spend a lot of time on the Internet. Between online shop work, online shopping play, msn / skype & handfuls of  forums chatting & networking, myspace blogging, google research, yahoo / hotmail etc...

I spend a huge proportion of each day navigating the world wide web. Hopping from place to place, effortlessly switching between numerous programs and multiple explorer windows as I 'multi-task' my way through each day. 

So much so that I often forget there is a whole non-virtual world out there. A world where you can't shop, chat to a customer, book tickets for the cinema, sell a dozen items and have lunch all at exactly the same time.

I cannot imagine my life as happy and complete without my 'cyberspace'. But once there was no Internet, no world wide web. And these ladies come from that world.

Their world is a bus ride away. The high street, the supermarket, the opticians, the internet, the nice cafe which serves cream teas ... for those ladies, the journey to all these places starts with the number of a bus ... as surely as mine starts with a URL. 

I wonder what the chances are that when I'm like 70 or something, i'll be chatting to someone half my age and say "oh that sound good, I'll have a peek at that. What's the web address?"

And they will stand there smiling and blinking at me, while trying to wrap their brain around how different their journeys are from mine.

By Delfi
@ Pimp My Strides

Are you a Goth, a Skater, a Townie, an Indie Kid, or one of the other many other youth tribes out there?  Do you even know? 

Go to www.findyourtribe.co.uk and find out who you are.

Then send to your mates to see whether they're in your tribe!

I did this test and I am officially a 'BLINGER' , as if I didn't know!!! What else could I be? And what is a 'BLINGER' I hear you cry.

Blinger - You truely are the tribe that lives for the weekend. You work during the weeks and your job's OK but it's a means to an end - a way of getting together the necessary funds for that new mobile phone, the HP on your VW Golf, some new threads and of course, a big night out on Saturday. You are a blinger. You quite like some British music, but really your heart is in America with those supersized Jeeps and street hip hop heroes like Jay-Z. An attitude you carry close to your heart as you blow the best part of your weeks wages in the VIP area of your favourite club. Like it said on those Jay-Z Reebok ads; he got his MBA in Macy Projects. You would link up with a rich person if you could - although you'd never give up your dreams to do so.

This test asks you questions about your hobbies, interests and even what designer brands you love (or loath) and from your answers puts you in a nice little box. I wouldn't take this seriously, but it is funny to see how accurate some of the descriptions are.

Have fun, and if you take the test please post your result on this blog. Give us all a laugh.

By Delfi
@ Pimp My Strides.

Ok, so I know I'm a bit late in doing this post, but as a wise man once said 'better late than never.'

On Sunday 3rd Sept, Aaryn and I went to the Autumn Fair at the Birmingham NEC and boy wasn't that fun!!!

We started the day at 5:30am by getting up and dragging our weary bodies to the local train station. By 7:50am we were wending our way to the fun and frivolity that is the Autumn Fair.

We had decided not to stay the night in Birmingham, which gave us 5 scant hours to look around and decide what goodies we would be offering to our lovely customers in the run up to Christmas. There were 6 Halls in total, but when they say 'hall', they actually mean something the size of a small county.

We started off in Hall 1 (which seemed like a good idea at the time), but soon discovered that although it was packed with many great and wonderful items, they were not what we were looking for. Unfortunately we did not decide this until 2 hours after we'd first entered. We decided that we must be frugal with our remaining 3 hours, so we went for a cup of tea!

We then decided to scrap our initial plan of doing the Halls in numerical order and so went straight to Hall 5, which offered the promise of Gifts & Designer Led items. Our minds boggled as rows, upon rows of sparkly shiny jewellery and other accessories threatened to blind us with their brilliance.

We spoke to many wonderful people who enticed us into their particular corner and soon lost track of the time. Aaryn then noticed we had only 45mins left until we needed to be on the coach back to the train station, so the race was on. Dashing from stall to stall like women possessed, we rushed through the rows, pausing only to grab brochures and business cards from those whose items had really caught our eye.

Finally our time at the Autumn Fair was at an end and we trudged wearily to the coaches waiting for us. Tired, feet ablaze and yet buzzing with ideas we waited in line and started a conversation with a random lady who was waiting with us. 'Are you coming to the Spring Fair?' She asked. 'We don't know.' We replied. 'Oh, you should!!!' She said 'It's at least 3 times as big as this one.' At that point I may have started crying...I can't really remember.

But for all our pain and suffering has come the most wonderful items which we will be bringing to you shortly. We will be introducing a new range of accessories such as bag & mobile phone charms to 'charm' even the most discerning customer and some super-snazzy & uber-chic jewellery to really 'Pimp' up your wardrobe.

By Aaryn @
Pimp My Strides

Launched at the beginning of August, in the middle of a worldwide media frenzy, strike actions from fed up auction sellers over the eBay latest price-hikes and the negative changes to eBay shop visibility hitting some eBayers particularly hard; one thing is certain - Tazbar's timing couldn't be better.

Not even two months old, with some unique e-commerce features, Tazbar already has over 12,000 listings as UK sellers quietly fill up the categories ready for Xmas and the anticipated top secret Tazbar marketing campaign.

Even sellers already established on alternative auction sites like eBid are beginning to glance Tazbar's way. Attracted by easy-on-the-eye colourful branding and easy site navigation - that and, so far, Tazbar appears pleasantly free of buyer & seller pet hates - scams, fakes, categories cluttered with irrelevant listings and endless get rich quick schemes.

Everybody knows that sooner or later eBay is going to have to compete with a genuine rival. Many speculate Google will be the one to successfully throw the gauntlet down. Some are now even actively petitioning Google to do so. But are Google too busy 'getting-into-bed' with eBay via core business deals to bother rocking that particular boat?

Perhaps eBay's banning Google's newly launched payment alternative to Paypal is because they anticipate that all too soon they'll have to fight to keep their #1 status.

Once Google was one of many tiny search engine options dwarfed by Yahoo. A few years ago virtually nobody had heard of myspace and blogger.com dominated this arena. Now millions upon millions of people are counted among Tom's friends. 

The history of our Internet constantly demonstrates that on the www dot playing field you don't have to start big to end up toppling a giant.

Over the coming months, PMS will be gently monitoring the Internet 'buzz' about this new kid on the block to those with the most vested interest – Tazbar sellers - via our Tazbar on the www - what's said & who's saying it forum thread.

Today's question is:

Could Tazbar be the one to rock eBay's world in a few years time?

By Jaye @
Pimp My Strides

Celebrations broke out at HQ yesterday evening when the official ebay invitation to PowerSeller Status dropped quietly into Pimp My Strides' inbox.

After lots of jumping around and hugging, Delfi was asked to do the signing-in honours, accept the invitation and bestow upon our ebay id the coveted icon of a powerseller.

No one was more thrilled at the news than Aaryn, who promptly burst into tears and spend the next 5 hours on the PS discussion boards catching up with old friends. We had to pry her away from the keyboard at 2:00am. Three guesses where she is right now!

A HUGE Thankyou to all of our customers for choosing to shop with us and helping us acheive this important goal.

By Aaryn @
Pimp My Strides

eBay is fast becoming the marketplace of choice for small and medium sized businesses and if you could choose anyone to show you how to grow your eBay buisness Mountcomp (aka Chris Dawson) would be No1 on many, many UK Powersellers' lists.

A legend on the Powerseller boards, even veteran powersellers value his insights and advice like groupies adore their favourite band.

Now non-Powersellers have the opportunity to hear Mounties' words of wisdom at the new FREE E-Technology Seminars organised by Business Link Wessex. If you have, work for [or want to run] a small to medium sized business with eBay ambitions... book your place on one of his guest speaker seminars TODAY.

Call 08454 58 85 57 or visit www.businesslinkwessex.co.uk/events now to secure your FREE place at one of the 7 September venues below

Thursday 7th Sep - AFC Bournemouth
Tuesday 12th Sep - Royal Chase Hotel, Shaftesbury
Thursday 14th Sep - The Corn Exchange, Dorchester
Tuedsay 19th Sep - University of Southampton
Thursday 21st Sep - Quay Arts, Newport, Isle of Wight
Wednesday 27 Sep - Basingstoke Country Hotel, Hook
Thursday 5 Oct - Hilton National, Porstmouth

Other guest speakers and topics include:-

Nick Stocks of Internet-Dept on Wow Factor Websites, Paul Tansey of Intergage on Search Engine Success and Mike Hawkyard & John White of 4T2 Multimedia Ltd on Viral Marketing Madness.

We'll see you there!

p.s we know lots of uk powersellers are reading this entry right now. please don't be shy.. feel free to post a little comment  This blog is for you too.

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