LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER

HAPPY LEAP YEAR!
As we conclude the holiday season for 2007, many of
us are wondering what 2008 will bring?

You should be preparing for 2008 right now. Get your
business plan together, line up your product sources,
get involved with high paying affiliate programs and
begin dealing digital products if you
haven't already.

While many people believe that the first quarter of
the year may not be the best - I can tell you from
experience that it is! Many manufacturers have an
abundance of inventory just waiting to be
liquidated. Their loss can can be a virtual windfall
of profits for you.

During the winter months, there are many buyers
stuck at home and shopping online.

What better way to spend a late winter day than
clearing your closets for all things spring. Start
with the kids' winter clothes and toys they'll
outgrow by next winter. Clear your shelves of l
ingering holiday gifts, like the stylish (for
someone else) handbag from Aunt Sylvie you know
you'll never use. Got an i-Phone for Christmas?
Sell your cell! Find them all a new home--and
make money and space for a fresh start this spring.

It's your business and it's time to earn big
profits by working smarter - not harder in 2008.

If you would like to discuss your participation in
an upcoming coaching session, then please contact
me today.

I'd love to hear from you.

Let us help you make 2008 your best year ever!

Have a Successful Day,
Coach Danny

IN THE FEBRUARY ISSUE

- LETTER FROM THE PUBLISHER
- New Product Source for February
- NVU Web Authoring System
- eBay Seller Pricing Changes
- eBay Live! Comes to Chicago in June
- Wikipedia Search Project
- Google Combats Domain Name Loophole

"We don't grow unless we take risks. Any successful company is riddled with failures."
-James E. Burke

New Product Source for February

Buy Items Left Behind on Airplanes

Here's a site that sells thousands of items left
behind on airplanes like laptops, fur coats,
jewelry, etc...

www.unclaimedbaggage.com

TOP AUCTION TOOLS

eBay Seller Pricing Changes




In this article, I usually have a new useful tool
to use or suggest that was useful. This month we
go back to basics with eBay itself and their new,
what they claim, "to make a better experience
for the buyer."

Here's some new information from eBay about their
upcoming new policies affecting all sellers.

Besides the unsurprising seller fee hikes, there
has been an uproar over the impending change to their
feedback rating system. Read on...

eBay has made some exciting new moves:
reduced the upfront cost of selling on eBay by
cutting insertion fees up to 25% for auction-style
and fixed price listings. Gallery pictures in search
results are now free to help you showcase your
inventory for selling success.

Seller Update: Fees, Rewards & Standards
eBay buyers want value and selection from sellers
they can trust--and good sellers deserve rewards
for delivering great customer service. That's why
we're making a number of important changes that
may affect you:

Reduced Listing Fees
We're reducing Insertion Fees and adjusting Final
Value Fees (8.25% to 13%-up from 5.25%!) to lower your
up-front cost to sell on eBay. You wanted free Gallery,
now you've got it--plus more feature discounts for
Gallery Plus, Picture Pack, and Feature Plus.


Rewards for great sellers
There will be discounts and incentives for those who
satisfy customers best. Who decides who gets rewarded?
Customers do, by giving sellers high Detailed Seller
Ratings (DSRs).

• More search exposure through Best Match

• Fee discounts for PowerSellers

• Increased protection for PowerSellers


Feedback Changes
Significant changes coming soon will increase buyer
confidence and showcase good sellers.

• Buyers will only be able to receive positive
Feedback (Sellers will not be able to leave negative
feedback for buyers)


• Positive repeat customer Feedback will count

• Feedback more than 12 months old won't

• Negative and neutral Feedback left by the buyer
will be removed for transactions in which a buyer
doesn't respond to the Unpaid Item or if the
member is suspended.

Do you think this a good idea for eBay?
Check out the eBay Forum on the new Feedback
policies and see what other sellers think here:
forums.ebay.com

You may also read about PayPal imposing 21 day
holds on your funds.

How do you think these changes will affect you?
Leave a comment!

eBay Live! Chicago June 19-21

eBay is coming to the "Windy City" this summer!
Save the date to join us for the eBay community
event of the year. Registration opens March 14.
catch the early bird discounts.

Are you planning on going?

More information can be found here:
pages.ebay.com/ebaylive

TOOL OF THE MONTH

This month I wanted to tell you about a great and
easy to use HTML editor. Several of my students
have mentioned to me that they use it and like it.
Plus it's free to download and use!

NVU
A complete Web Authoring System for Macintosh,
Microsoft Windows and Linux Desktop users to rival
programs like FrontPage and Dreamweaver.

Nvu (pronounced N-view, for a "new view") makes
managing a web site a snap. Now anyone can create
web pages and manage a website with no technical
expertise or knowledge of HTML.

Nvu Features
Check out the latest features for Nvu!

• WYSIWYG editing of pages, making web creation as
easy as typing a letter with your word processor.

• Integrated file management via FTP. Simply login
to your web site and navigate through your files,
editing web pages on the fly, directly from
your site.

• Reliable HTML code creation that will work with
all of today's most popular browsers.

• Jump between WYSIWYG Editing Mode and HTML using
tabs. Tabbed editing to make working on multiple
pages a snap.

• Powerful support for forms, tables, and templates.

Open Source
Nvu is 100% open source and released under the
Mozilla Public License (MPL). Anyone is welcome to
download Nvu at no charge, including the source
code if you need to make special changes.
Developers are encouraged to get involved and
help make Nvu even better.

www.nvu.com

ONLINE RESOURCE OF THE MONTH

Wikipedia Founder Brings Search Project

The founder of Wikipedia says taking the online
encyclopedia's collaborative approach into the field
of search won't dethrone Google Inc. or another
major search engine — at least not soon.

After months of talk and a few weeks of
invitation-only testing, Wikia Search is to open to
the general public next week.

Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales says his goal is to
let volunteers improve search technology collectively,
the way Wikipedia lets anyone add or change entries,
regardless of expertise.

"That reduces the sort of bottleneck of two or three
firms really controlling the flow of search traffic,"
said Wales, chairman of Wikia Inc., the for-profit
venture behind the search project.

Engineers at Google and other search companies
continually tweak their complex software algorithms
to improve results and fight spammers — those who
try to artificially boost the rankings of their own
sites. Search companies have not disclosed many
details to avoid tipping off competitors and spammers.

Wales' approach would open that process. Initially,
participants will help make such decisions as whether
a site on "Paris Hilton" refers to the celebrity or
a French hotel.

Danny Sullivan, editor in chief of the industry Web
site Search Engine Land, has his doubts. Finding all
the Web sites to index and staying ahead of spammers
are huge undertakings, Sullivan said.

"I think he doesn't really understand the scale of
what Google has to handle in terms of the queries
from around the world and the amount of traffic that
flows to it and the attempts that are made to try
to manipulate it," Sullivan said.

Wales said the project would launch with about 50
million to 100 million Web pages indexed, a fraction
of the billions available with major search engines.

Even as Wales tries to challenge search, Google has
announced a project that could challenge Wikipedia.
Google's version, called knol, will differ from
Wikipedia by identifying who wrote each article and
giving authors a chance to share in Google's
advertising revenue.

search.wikia.com

Google Combats Domain Name Loophole

By ANICK JESDANUN

The online advertising leader Google Inc. said it
would help make it less lucrative to tie up millions
of Internet addresses using a loophole and keep
those domain names from legitimate individuals and
businesses.

Over the next few weeks, Google will start looking
for names that are repeatedly registered and dropped
within a five-day grace period for full refunds.

Google's AdSense program would exclude those names
so no one can generate advertising revenue from
claiming them temporarily, a practice known as domain
name tasting - the online equivalent of buying
expensive clothes on a charge card only to return
them for a full refund after wearing them to a party.

"We believe that this policy will have a positive
impact for users and domain purchasers across the
Web," Google spokesman Brandon McCormick said.

The company said it notified participants via e-mail.

Name tasting exploits a grace period originally
designed to rectify legitimate mistakes, such as
registrants mistyping the domain name they are about
to buy. But with automation and a burgeoning online
advertising market, entrepreneurs have generated big
bucks exploiting the policy to test hoards of names,
keeping just the ones that turn out to generate the
most revenue.

The practice ties up millions of domain names at any
given time, making it more difficult for legitimate
individuals and businesses to get a desirable name.

Jay Westerdal, who earlier wrote about Google's
change on his DomainTools blog, said in an interview
that the ban should make domain name tasting far
less lucrative. He noted that Google's chief rival,
Yahoo Inc., already tries to ban tasted addresses
that infringe on trademarks and account for much of
the problem.

"If Google and Yahoo are not monetizing these types
of sites, I think domain tasting as we know it will
come to a screeching halt," Westerdal said. "The
alternative advertising is just not as effective."

In October, Yahoo sued several domain name
registration companies over tasting, accusing them
of targeting trademarks owned by Yahoo and other
leading brands. The lawsuit is pending in U.S.
District Court in Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Dell Inc.
and BMW have filed similar federal lawsuits
in Florida.

The Internet's key oversight agency, the Internet
Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, already
is looking into name tasting and will soon ask a
committee to review the issue and craft
recommendations. A public comment period on draft
procedures has closed.

The operators of the ".org" suffix already won
approval to charge companies that make too many
returns. The number of deletions dropped to 152,700
in June, compared with 2.4 million in May, after
the new fee took effect.