Tamebay’s 10th birthday party is being held on the 10th of November 2016 in London. Our official birthday based on the published date of our first ever blog post is the 11th of November 2006, so as the clock strikes midnight we really will be a decade old.
As we head towards Tamebay’s 10th birthday, we’ll be looking back over the past decade in a series of posts… you have been warned 😉
How it all started
It seems a long time ago that Sue and I sat down to write our first blog posts and I’ve been reading back over a few of my favourites. With the news that TurboLister is to be retired next year, discovering that one of the first news items we published was the news on the 14th November 2006 that TurboLister V2.0 was out in Beta is some what apt.
A favourite of mine from the same day is still the spoof It eBay advert. The official marketing message was that whatever you wanted you could get “It” on eBay. The spoof was when It turned up and was proudly displayed next to the couple’s last purchase which had arrived a few days before…. we’ll you’ll have to watch the video but it’s worth it!
It was this mix of news with irreverence which captured the interest of Tamebay’s first readers, many of who still read the site today. We’ve never had any pretences of being a stuffy news site and the aim was always to inform readers of the key marketplace news and have a little fun along the way.
I wish I could remember who it was, but after just a few days of blogging on Tamebay someone put a link on the eBay PowerSeller board saying “Hey guys, have you seen what Sue and Chris are up to?” Actually they said “Have you seen what Biddy and Mountie are up to” in a nod to our eBay User ID alter egos. That day we had 350 visitors to Tamebay and the next morning we woke up to 500 site visitors and traffic has been growing ever since.
Tamebay Philosophy
From the very early days we made a decision that Tamebay would not become a site for the disenchanted failed marketplace seller. We know businesses fail, we’ve written about some of them. It’s not always useful however and we much prefer to focus on how online retailers can grow and prosper than to be a place for failed sellers to vent.
Generally we’ve always strived to be helpful with the mantra that if we haven’t anything good to say then generally it’s best not to say anything, but that’s not to say that over the years Sue, Dan and myself haven’t had a lot to say when we disagreed with things marketplaces, suppliers (or even sellers) have done. Sue’s legendary ‘Dolphins‘ post immediately springs to mind.
Readers Choice Award
One of the key parts of Tamebay has always been tips and information from our readers. I remember a rather abrupt comment from Northumbrian one day saying “Chris, how come you never write about Packing Partner, we use it and love it”. Personally having reviewed Packing Partner I went on to use it for most of the next decade and a ton of other Tamebay readers did too. That’s why as part of our 10th Birthday Celebrations we’re still inviting you to spread the love with nominations for the Tamebay Readers’ Award. All you need to do is click here and enter the name of the tool, service, business, supplier or individual that you couldn’t live without.
More details of the party and awards can be found here but if you’d like to be there on the night to celebrate 10 years of Tamebay, the first five people to comment below saying they’d like to come will all receive a free ticket.
