Posts from — May 2006

Working on eBay is a great business if you can maximize profits and minimize the time you spent doing it. If you are faced with growth there are many things that you will want to consider before hiring assistance to save costs and make life easier. Consider a listing program.eBay has fundamental tools, like Turbo Lister and Selling Manager that do backend work, like invoicing, ad creation, and payment collection, but there are several others that are noteworthy. In addition, note that when you use a listing program you will not only save on man-hours but you will also save on features such as image hosting, with the ability to use multiple images in each ad. The cost of these programs outweighs the money vs. time equation with added features that will save money on eBay listing fees as well.ChannelAdvisor:

1. This sytem is a compelte auction management program online with a short startup for those who want better services than the standard services offered by Selling Manager, and Selling Manager Pro.
2. Contains Ad Templates that can customize and conform your listing to look very proffessional
3. Will do Inventory management
4. Can launch auctions instantly or schedule ads to launch
5. Has an inherant checkout system that can take payments and upsell from your ChannelAdvisor Store.
6. Has Image Hosting included
7. Generates invoices, shipping notices and auto feedback.
8. ChannelAdvisor Pro starts at $29.95 per month

Sign up with ChannelAdvisor and get 14 days free.

SpareDollar:

1. Has Ad Templates
2. Has Image Hosting included
3. Generates invoices, shipping notices and auto feedback.
4. Has Gallery feature to add cross sell to your ads
5. Is very inexpensive at only about $8.95 per month

Try SpareDollar

There are many others, but these are just two of the options available. For more information and eBay consulting, contact us.

Recently eBay has put in an entirely new structure to combat fraud on the site. New sellers who do not get verified need to do this in order to stay online. One recent client reported that after he had uploaded several auctions and had over 7 bids on each, he was pulled because he had not been ’seller verified’.To become verified, make sure you click on myeBay account, and enter both a credit card and bank account.

Small Business owners face many decisions when starting a web site. There are many types and choices for building sites and there are many opportunities available. Making the right choice can play an important role in website traffic.When considering where to build a website several things should enter into your decision.1. Do you have the funds for updates to the website, or will you do it yourself?2. If you plan to access the backend yourself is it a simple straightforward program that will make your job easier?

So now we have the blog spammers. These are the guys who arene’t really writing anything except buy this, buy this, buy this. Rank me, Rank me. and so on.

There is even software for those spammers who are too lazy to write anything. It will post you out to thousands of sites. I get submissions every day. I don’t act on them.

Then there are the auto submitters that post comments to your blog conveniently including their own url in the response in hopes of jumping off of your PageRank with a link of their own.

According to one blogger, CNN has even engaged on the battlefield, posting comments to blogs in order to win the rating wars.

I think we’ve disabled posting to our blog via comments, so not to worry, but if you have a blog, beware of the blog spammers and prune those messages!

A commercial.   

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Execution by Larry Bossidy and Ram Charan    Bossidy, the legendary CEO of Honeywell International, Inc., joins forces with consultant and prolific author Charan to explain how getting things done — not strategy, innovation or anything else — is the most important function of a leader. The authors examine in detail the three key processes of execution — people, strategy and operations — and show how all three are linked. Click to get this summary free!	Free Prize Inside! by Seth Godin    A free prize is a game-changing soft innovation; a cool twist that doesn’t cost a fortune but transforms the way people think about your product or service. In Free Prize Inside!, marketing guru Seth Godin encourages readers to take on the challenge of creating innovation. Godin explains that one cannot create innovation by building an organization that is automatically innovative. Instead, companies must create a desire among individuals to do the difficult work that makes innovation happen. Click to get this summary free!
Good to Great by Jim Collins    What do good companies need to do to become great? To answer this question, Jim Collins (the author of the bestseller Built to Last) and a team of researchers used strict benchmarks to identify a group of 11 elite companies that made the leap from good to great and sustained that greatness for at least 15 years. The companies that made the list, and those that did not, provide a vast supply of strategies and ideas that leaders can use within their own organizations to propel them to greatness. Click to get this summary free!	The 8th Habit by Stephen R. Covey    Excellence is no longer merely an option — survival requires it. But to thrive, excel and lead we must move beyond effectiveness to greatness. Leadership guru Stephen Covey writes that accessing a higher level of human genius and motivation requires a sea change in thinking: a new mind-set and skill set — in short, an additional habit to those featured in his book The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People. Covey explains that the crucial challenge is to find our own voice and inspire others to find theirs. Click to get this summary free!
Who Says Elephants Can’t Dance by Louis V. Gerstner, Jr.    The visionary former chairman and CEO of IBM gives his detailed, insider account of the now-legendary turnaround at the giant computer company. Among the lessons you will learn: If it’s broken, fix it; if it’s not broken, fix it anyway. Click to get this summary free!	Click here to learn more about Soundview Executive Book Summaries and get these 5 summaries free with your subscription!