Never heard of edgeio? You will do – it’s a free listing service that monitors RSS enabled websites that include the word ‘listing’ in tags. As the blurb says:
A blogger can publish an item for sale and have it listed on edgeio within a matter of seconds. An auto dealer with an RSS enabled website can publish their inventory in real-time to edgeio’s network.
Why should you care? I’ve been saying for some time this medium provides the means to reach a global audience. edgeio is one way to do that easily and simply. It has inbuilt search which can be localised to your town, region, country or world. It’s not quite like eBay because there’s no bidding system but you can think of it as a global marketplace. Blog sites that might never get attention or which have tended to focus on serving local people can easily expand their sphere of influence.
This has the potential to change the specialist retail game. If that means your clients start to take on an international audience, the game changes for you as well. Do you know the rules for EU VAT? What about exporting to the US? What about importing? Do you know when a hobby involving the buying and selling of goods becomes a trading activity?
edgeio is in beta preview at the moment and you need an invite to get in but that’s easy to come by. I’d recommend giving it a try – and if you agree with me, then tell your clients about it. That’s solid advice.
update: edgeio doesn’t seem to like authorization keys that are entered via ecto on the Mac?
Technorati Tags: edgeio, innovation, listing
