If this report were true, it would certainly not be threatening to the effectiveness of well prepared eBay listings, and from conversations I've had with senior management at eBay, it's unlikely that eBay would stop pay-per-click campaigns, as they've invested heavily in making that work across multiple search engines, with a dedicated in house team devoted to that.

With that background in mind, I had the opportunity to raise the question of the news report at a special luncheon recently, and the reply that came back clearly stated that the report was false, and that relations between eBay and Google remain strong.

It might surprise you to hear that the media apparently reported a false story. It doesn't surprise me at all, and I'll tell you why. Years ago I managed a celebrity in the UK by the name of Paul Daniels. He was the ?Johnny Carson' of Britain, and his TV shows were broadcast in 43 countries over a period of at least 15 years. During his

As you can imagine, at the peak of his career, Paul was a subject of constant attention by the media, and I quickly realized that most of the reports about him were completely false.

According to the media he lived in 4 different places (he actually had just one home), he'd fallen out with multiple celebrities that he'd never even met, his top of the ratings TV show was a disaster, and, well you get the picture.

The ?creative writing' (lies) were so extreme that it got to the point where Paul refused to subscribe to or read any newspaper, because as he rightly reasoned, ?if they're writing this stuff about me, how can I believe anything else they're reporting?? He was absolutely right.

In a similar way, be very careful where you get your information about how to use eBay. There are some slick, popular trainers out there who are teaching what I can only describe as a shortcut to disaster. Always ask for comments from past satisfied customers, which leads us nicely on to?.