Greetings and a Happy Spring to all my readers.
With the arrival of the new season, it's time to clear
out all your old inventory and have a sale. Or maybe
it's time to try out a new product you found and see
how it moves?
If you need an idea for a new product, I may have
found one for you while watching the late night TV.
Sometimes the most amazing products come up that
everyone can use and would be easy to market to a
select niche and be simple to ship too! Read about
the magicJack in this month's New Product Source
section below. If I didn't require my telephone
line for DSL, I'd be very tempted to shut off
my line!
Also read about some other places to sell your
products online, besides eBay, in the Top Auction
Tools article I've put together for you.
Let me know about your success using these
resources...
To Your Success,
Coach Danny
LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
IN THE MARCH ISSUE
- LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
- New Product Source for March
- More Online Social Selling Sites
- PhotoPlus Digital Image Editor
- Check Out Your Link Popularity
- eBay Safer Payments Requirements
- OnlineAuction.com: Lower Fees, Fewer Bids
"The world leaders in innovation and creativity will
also be world leaders in everything else."
-Harold R. McAlindon
New Product Source for March
Unlimited Local And Long-Distance Calling
For $20 A Year
by Rick Broida
Need a second phone line? How about a dedicated
business line for your home-based enterprise? A
cheap way to make
calls while traveling the world? Look no further
than the MagicJack, quite possibly the coolest
gizmo of 2007.
All you do is plug the little guy into a USB port.
It automatically installs its own software: a nifty
little dialer/address-book app. (During the initial
setup, you get to choose your own local number for
inbound calls.)
Now just plug any corded or cordless handset into
the MagicJack's standard RJ-11 jack and presto,
you've got a dial tone. And voice mail. And
three-way calling, caller ID, etc. You can also
use a headset if you're traveling and don't
want to schlep that bulky old Princess phone.
The MagicJack costs $40, which includes a year's
worth of unlimited local and long-distance calls.
(Free international calls to other MagicJack users,
too.) After that, you'll pay just $20 per year.
It's way easier to use than Skype, way cheaper than
Vonage, and way cool to boot.
Find out how to get yours here:
magicJack.com
You can also apply here to become a Reseller:
support.magicJack.com/reseller
TOP AUCTION TOOLS
More Online Social Selling Sites
With the latest bout of eBay policy changes, the
consensus seems to be that thousands of eBay
sellers are very unhappy with eBay eliminating the
ability for sellers to leave negative or neautral
feedback for their buyers, yet let buyers be able
to still leave negative feedback. This seems to be
unfair and many sellers, including myself, have
decided to boycott selling on eBay. Especially,
when the new policies come into effect in May.
You can also read about the new Safer Payments
Requirements in regards to PayPal in an article
below in this month's issue.
While reading the ebay Forum posts on this, I read
about one seller who is going to rotate his items
on various sites like Craigslist or even Amazon,
before using eBay as last resort.
Did you know that you list items on Google for
FREE? These same items can be found along other
products when using the Shopping link on Google's
homepage on the upper left corner.
Follow the Information for Sellers link near the
bottom of the page that will let you submit them
in Product Search in Google Base.
Follow the Submit your products link on the left
hand side panel.
Also try:
Craigslist.org - Post to classifieds
Amazon.com - Sell Items
TOOL OF THE MONTH
This month I wanted to tell you about a great and
easy to use photo editor. It's free to download
and use!
PhotoPlus
PhotoPlus 6 is the perfect choice for editing and
enhancing your digital images and photos for print,
email and the web.
Main Features
• Export Optimizer
• Photo Enhancement
• Selection Tools
• Image Slicing & Maps
• Editable Text
• QuickShapes
ONLINE RESOURCE OF THE MONTH
Check Out Your Link Popularity
Some of you will notice that I sometimes bring out
a tool from our coaching department. You should
really grab this one while it's available. It is
a big help when we get a student and their website
just isn't doing anything.
There are about 6 tools here that are a essential
on this one website. You'll find tools to help
with your keywords, genrating META tags, analysing
your webpage code for errors and so much more to
help you boost your ranking and traffic.
The Link Popularity Checker tells you how many
websites are linking to yours. Website popularity
is an important factor in your search engine
ranking. The more popular your site is, the better
it will be ranked on the search engines.
webmaster-toolkit.com
eBay Safer Payments Requirements Go Into Effect
eBay is making some changes that are intended to
make the buying experience on eBay better and
safer. As part of this initiative, expanded safer
payment requirements went into effect on March 17.
Since January 2007, all new sellers have been
required to offer PayPal or a merchant credit
card as a payment option to their buyers. On
March 17, this policy was expanded to sellers or
items when they meet one or more of the following
conditions:
• Seller has higher than 5% buyer
dissatisfaction rates
• Seller has less than 100 feedback
• Items are listed in categories with higher
rates of buyer complaints, including:
Gift Certificates, Video Games, Cell Phones,
Computers and Consumer Electronics.
In addition, for a small number of transactions
that have a higher risk of buyer dissatisfaction,
we may delay the release of funds paid through
PayPal. This hold will be placed on only a small
percentage of transactions for up to 21 days.
(Remember - PayPal is NOT a bank -
they can hold your money indefinitely)
Then the funds will be released if there is no
dispute. The funds may be released earlier if the
buyer leaves positive feedback, or if PayPal can
confirm delivery of the item. Sellers enrolled in
the PayPal Money Market Fund will earn interest on
any pending funds in their PayPal accounts.
Your payments will not be held if you meet the
following requirements:
• You have been an eBay member for 6 months
or more &
• Your total Feedback score is 100
or greater &
• Your buyer dissatisfaction percentage is
less than 5%.
Or
• Your average DSR is 4.5 or greater and
• Your have received 20 or more DSRs in the
last 12 months.
OnlineAuction.com: Lower Fees, Fewer Bids
By Jan Perry
A lot of long-time loyal cyber-sellers began
looking for an auction alternative following the
recent controversial fee and policy changes
imposed by the perennial auction mega-site - eBay.
Although it has had competition online for several
years, as of yet, no one site has stepped up to
truly give it a run for its customer base. But the
folks at OnlineAuction.com (or OLA as they call it)
are hoping to do just that.
The biggest advantage OLA offers sellers is a flat
membership fee with no listing or re-listing fees
and no final value fees (that's the percentage of
the highest bid that goes as a commission to the
auction site). Plus OLA offers some important
freedoms that eBay does not allow. Sellers are
welcome to include personal website information
in their listings and communicate directly with
OLA members about the items up for sale. Also,
multiples (say 20 identical hammers intended for
20 separate sales) are listed on one page rather
than the eBay system, which forces sellers to
create 20 individual listings (and pay 20
individual fees).
You do pay for listing upgrades like extra photos
(over four) or prominent placement on the listing
page. But those fees are the same or lower than
most auction sites.
There is another important difference. The set
closing time for items on eBay allows an individual
to grab an item at the last second. (It's called
sniping). On OLA, if multiple buyers are still
actively bidding when an auction reaches its
official closing time, that time is extended
so that, just like at a traditional auction,
bidding continues until only one bidder is left.
Creating a listing is straightforward and will
be extremely easy for anyone that has sold on
other auction sites. (There's a good tutorial
and a Chat Room specifically for anyone that's
new and wants some help.) But sellers that are
used to fancy backgrounds and themed page designs
may be disappointed with the site's "no frills"
appearance. And those that like to have the
auction site step in when there's a problem with
a buyer or seller or item might not be comfortable
with OLA's stance on the subject. All they do is
bring buyer and seller together.
They do not mediate disputes. (Their feedback
system does allow for changes of heart and late
follow-ups, however.)
Joining OLA is a two-minute process and is free
for basic buyers (who then have a maximum bid
total per-day limit of $1,000) or $4 monthly for
verified buyer members. (They have unlimited
bidding/buying privileges.)
Sellers have three options. A "Verified Seller"
($8 monthly) is entitled to bid without
limitations, communicate between buyers and
sellers via a private O-Mail account, use chat
rooms, and view/post feedback. They may list and
sell as many items as they choose with no listing
fees or final value fees using the simple form on
the site or the free downloadable bulk listing
tool, O-Lister.
A "Charter Member" ($96 annually) is entitled to
the same benefits but they also receive $100 worth
of auction enhancements (additional photos,
featured status for selected auctions, activation
of "End-It-Early" feature) at no cost.
Finally, there are "Founding Members" ($196 the
first year and $96 guaranteed each year thereafter
for life). Founding Members receive the same
benefits as Charter Members although the
enhancements package bumps to $200. A special icon
identifies them, and their links are accessible
from the site's home page.
And they can set up a virtual store (called "My
OLA House,") that is linked to their auctions.
The store is free for the first 12 months.
The sight is campaigning heavily for the latter.
In fact, they're actively looking for a million
sellers to take advantage of the "no fee increase"
promise and benefits package and join the Founding
Member movement. (So far they've signed up
approximately 500.)
So it all sounds great.
The tough part for the OnlineAuction crew is
going to be delivering enough buying traffic to
tempt established eBay sellers away from the
security of the auction giant. While I found tons
of items listed, it's much harder finding
listings with bids. As one PowerSeller put it,
"It's all about name recognition. There's eBay
and then there are all of the nameless others.
Everyone knows what eBay is. Very few people
could even name another auction site."
That may be true today. But with discontent among
eBay members, some well-timed national exposure
and an ever-growing groundswell of word-of-mouth
support, OLA just may have what it takes to
overcome anonymity and play David to
eBay's Goliath.
Link to Fee Information:
onlineauction.com
