Ebid mentioned in the I

There was a mention in the I (30p version of The Independent in an article about TOS

http://www.independent.co.uk/life-st...internalSearch

"People talk about eBaying products in the same way as they discuss Hoovering their carpet, putting rivals such as eBid – a $6bn marketplace in 100 countries – at a distinct disadvantage.

"Due to our commitment to remain cost effective for our customers, our advertising budget is not at the scale of our major competitor," says Mark Wilkinson, who co-founded eBid in 1999 and has stuck to zero insertion fees and a three per cent final value fee. "In an ideal world we would have a few more large sellers on board to ever improve the selection of items available for sale on eBid and obtain a more regular buying community, who we would hope to also entice into selling."

Well Mark, if you want to attract those sellers and buyers, you need to up your game in advertising.

Credit where credit is due.

The eBid name appears on an article of free publicity for the bay - perfect. If eBid could piggy back as little as 5% of the articles about the bay it will make a difference. This is highly relevant advertising, free as well - the only people who are likely to read that article are people who sell on the bay/internet and those who buy a fair amount online.

I often wonder whether these "news articles" are in fact genuine articles of news or real general interest matters. In my opinion its no more than the courtship of the site in question by said publication where they hope by making favourable noises about that site it will lead to them being given a slice of advertising revenue.

Although it is surprising that Ebid gets mentioned, but i guess it makes it look more like it isn't a blatant promotion of E££y.

err... anyone know a news story to be totally balanced - but, hey, a mention is a mention after all...