Revenge of the Rookies

October 26th 2008

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If you have been spending tons of money on internet marketing material, filling up everyone else’s pockets, leaving yourself pennyless and have not yet made any money for yourself, here’s how to get your frustration out!!
Play the game and have the last laugh!!



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Why Every Local Business MUST Have A Website

October 15th 2008


Do you own a local business? If you do, then your business absolutely must have a website if you’re hoping to remain competitive in your marketplace. Many business owners don’t realize this. They think, “sure, if you’re doing business online like Amazon or eBay then obviously you need a website. But I’m not selling my products or services online, just locally, so I don’t have any need for a website.” That sounds sensible at first glance, but they couldn’t be more wrong.

Because times have changed, and the way people get information has changed, too. Radically. Ten years ago, a local company could get by without a website. Back then, the Internet was new, and not every family had a computer hooked up to the worldwide web. And, for many of those people who were online, the Internet was sort of exotic – it was something of a hobby. They would spend their online time in chat rooms talking to new friends all over the world, or looking for Beanie Babies on eBay, or downloading the latest cool game.

But somewhere along the way, three things happened –

1.High Speed Internet Access got cheaper, and replaced dial up for the majority of users.
2.Almost every home is now connected to the Internet.
3.Google became THE dominant search engine

What does a High Speed Internet connection have to do with anything? A lot. Ten years ago, most people had dial up connections over a standard phone line. That meant that most of the time they weren’t hooked up to the Internet, and connecting usually took several minutes. And surfing was slow.

In other words, if they needed to look up the phone number of a local company, it was much easier and faster to just grab the Yellow Pages. Besides, back then, few local companies had their own website. But these days, in most homes, there are several computers hooked up to the Internet 24/7, with a high speed DSL connection. Tens of millions of people spend several hours a day in front of their computer, using the Internet Almost every home is now online, and the vast majority of them are using high speed Internet connections. That’s the first two radical changes.

So what does Google have to do with anything? Well, in a word, everything. Ten years ago, there were lots of search engines – Yahoo, Ask Jeeves, Netscape, AOL, and scores of others. And there still are dozens of search engines. But hardly anyone uses them.

Google came along around 1999, and they just completely took over the search engine business, practically overnight, because they were so much better than the others. Probably 85-90 percent of all searches these days are Google searches. And Google lists everything, including local businesses.

Are you starting to see the big picture? Ten years ago, most people still weren’t on the Internet, and now they are. And today, instead of being an expensive, slow moving toy, the Internet has become an integral part of their lives. Now, with a click of their mouse and a few keystrokes, they can find any information they need in about 5 seconds. Why get up, hunt down the Yellow Pages, dig through its hundreds of pages until they find “muffler shop”, when they can just type in “their city muffler shop” and have all the information they need without leaving their chair?

Well, most people won’t leave their chair. They’ll just go to Google. Which means that the Yellow Pages are yesterday’s news, and if you don’t have a website for your business online, you are missing out on huge numbers of leads and customers.

Any local business that doesn’t have a website has got two choices – get a website, and get one soon, or plan to eventually go out of business. It’s just that simple. What’s next? Check out the eport or visit the site!

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Learning the eBay “Lingo”

September 2nd 2008


Do you have trouble sometimes understanding when people talk about eBay? Don’t worry, some of the jargon is really obscure, and you can’t be expected to understand it until someone’s told you what it means. Here’s a little list of some of the most useful lingo to know, but you don’t need to memorise it - even the most common jargon is only used relatively rarely.

Words

Bid: telling eBay’s system the maximum price you are prepared to pay for an item.
Dutch: an auction where more than one of an item is available.
Feedback: positive or negative comments left about other users on eBay.
Mint: in perfect condition.
Non-paying bidder: a bidder who wins an auction but does not then go on to buy the item.
PayPal: an electronic payment method accepted by most sellers.
Rare: used and abused on eBay, now entirely meaningless.
Reserve: the minimum price the seller will accept for the item.
Shill bid: a fake bid placed by a seller trying to drive up their auction’s price.
Snail Mail: the post, which is obviously very slow compared to email.
Sniping: bidding at the last second to win the item before anyone else can outbid you.

Abbreviations

AUD: Australian Dollar. Currency.
BIN: Buy it Now. A fixed price auction.
BNWT: Brand New With Tags. An item that has never been used and still has its original tags.
BW: Black and White. Used for films, photos etc.
CONUS: Continental United States. Generally used by sellers who don’t want to post things to Alaska or Hawaii.
EUR: Euro. Currency.
FC: First Class. Type of postage.
GBP: Great British Pounds. Currency.
HTF: Hard To Find. Not quite as abused as ‘rare’, but getting there.
NIB: New in Box. Never opened, still in its original box.
NR: No Reserve. An item where the seller has not set a reserve price.
OB: Original Box. An item that has its original box (but might have been opened).
PM: Priority Mail.
PP: Parcel Post.
SH: Shipping and Handling. The fees the buyer will pay you for postage.
USD: United States Dollars. Currency.
VGC: Very Good Condition. Not mint, but close.

The chances are that you’ll find more specific jargon related to whatever you’re selling, but it’d be an impossible task to cover it all here. If you can’t figure one out from your knowledge of the subject, then type the term into a search engine, followed by the word ‘ebay’. The chances are that someone, somewhere will have seen fit to explain it.

While it’s good to be able to understand others’ jargon, avoid using it unless you really need to (for example, if you run out of space in an item’s title). Many people on eBay are not experienced buyers and you will lose them if you write a load of gobbledegook all over your auction.

By now, you’re well prepared for eBay life, and you’re probably ready to get started with that first auction. In the next email, we’ll show you how to dive in and get started.

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A Beginner’s Guide to the Different eBay Auction Types.

August 23rd 2008


 

Over the years, eBay has introduced all sorts of different auction types, in an effort to give people more options when they buy and sell their things on eBay.

For every seller who doesn’t like the idea that their item might sell for a far lower price than they intend, there’s another who wants to shift hundreds of the same item quickly. eBay tries to cater to all tastes. I’ll try and give you an overview of the different kinds of auctions and their advantages for you.

Normal Auctions.

These are the bread-and-butter of eBay, the auctions everyone knows: buyers bid, others outbid them, they bid again, and the winner gets the item. Simple.

Reserve Auctions.

Reserve auctions are for sellers who don’t want their items to sell for less than a certain price - a concept you’ll know about if you’re familiar with real auctions. They work just like normal auctions on eBay, except that the buyer will be told if their bid does not meet the reserve price you set, and they’ll need to bid again if they want the item. If no-one is willing to meet your price, then the auction is cancelled, and you keep the item.

Fixed Price (’Buy it Now’) Auctions.

Buy it Now auctions can work in one of two ways. You can add a Buy it Now button to a normal auction, meaning that buyers can choose either to bid normally or to simply pay the asking price and avoid the whole bidding process. Some sellers, though, now cut out the auction process altogether and simply list all their items at fixed price. This lets you avoid all the complications of the auction format and simply list your items for how much you want them to sell for.

Recently, eBay added a twist to fixed price auctions: the ‘best offer’. This means that buyers can contact you to negotiate a price, which could be a good way to get sell some extra stock at a small discount. The only downside to reserve and fixed price auctions is that you pay a small extra fee to use these formats. In general, it is more worth using reserve auctions for higher-priced items and fixed price auctions for lower-priced ones - but remember that you can combine the two formats.

Multiple Item (’Dutch’) Auctions.

These are auctions where you can sell more than one of a certain item. Dutch auctions can be done by bidding. Buyers bid a price and say how many items they want, and then everyone pays the lowest price that was bid by one of the winning bidders. If you have trouble getting your head around that, then don’t worry - everyone else does too! These auctions are very rare.

What is more common is when a seller has a lot of one item, and lists it using a combination of two auction types: a multiple-item fixed price auction. This just means that you can just say how many of the item you they have, and offer them at a fixed price per unit. Buyers can enter how many they want and then just click Buy it Now to get them.

Now that you know about the different types of auctions, you should make sure that the items you plan to sell don’t violate eBay’s listing policies. The next email will let you know what’s allowed and what is a big no-no.

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What You Need to Know BEFORE You Get Started on eBay

August 9th 2008


So you’ve decided that you want to get started as a seller on eBay. There are a few things that you really need to know before you go and throw yourself in at the deep end.

What to Sell.

First off, you need to know what it is you’re going to sell: what’s your speciality? You’ll do far better on eBay if you become a great source for certain kind of products, as people who are interested in those products will come back to you again and again. You won’t get any loyalty or real reputation if you just sell rubbish at random.

When you think about what to sell, there are a few things to consider. The most important of these is to always sell what you know. If you try to sell something that you just don’t know anything about then you’ll never write a good description and sell it for a good price.

You might think you’re not especially interested in anything, but if you think about what kind of things you usually buy and which websites you go to most often, I’m sure you’ll discover some kind of interest. If all else fails mention it to your friends and family: they’ll almost certainly say “Oh, well why don’t you sell…”, and you’ll slap your forehead.

Out of the things you know enough about, you should then consider which things you could actually get for a good enough price to resell, and how suitable they would be for posting. If you can think of something of that you’re knowledgeable about and it’s small and light enough for postage to be relatively cheap, then that’s great!

Don’t worry if you think the thing you’re selling is too obscure - it isn’t. There’s a market for almost everything on eBay, even things that wouldn’t sell once in a year if you stocked them in a shop. You’ll probably do even better if you fill a niche than if you sell something common.

Tax and Legal Matters.

If you earn enough money, you should be aware that you’re going to have to start paying tax - this won’t be done for you. If you decide to sell on eBay on a full-time basis, you should probably register as a business.

Prepare Yourself.

There are going to be ups and downs when you sell on eBay. Don’t pack it in if something goes a little wrong in your first few sales: the sellers who are successful on eBay are the ones who enjoy it, and stick at it whatever happens.

Anyone can sell on eBay, if they believe in themselves - and if you do decide it’s not for you, then the start-up costs are so low that you won’t really have lost anything.

If you’re ready to start selling, then the next thing you need to know is the different auction types, so you can decide which ones you will use to sell your items. This, I will cover in the next post.

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How To Get Your Subscribers to beg For More

July 19th 2008


 

Just as an experiment, I subscribed to ten different opt-in e-mail marketing lists to see which ones are effective.

 

Many websites and online businesses have resorted to sending promotional materials to people who have subscribed to them in an effort to boost their sales or traffic.  Opt-in email marketing sends newsletters, catalogues, updates and many more promotional materials to website visitors who have agreed to be updated whether monthly, weekly or quarterly.

 

If a promotional material grabs the interest of the receivers, they will go to the site to learn more or to purchase outright.

For the website operators or owners this is a chance to remind their list of their existence and showcase their products.

 

With the numerous sites on the internet that offer the same products or services in one way  another the competition can get pretty tight and it is easy to be forgotten.

 

Back to my experiment.  I tried to find out which opt-in marketing strategies compelled a person into begging for more. I noticed many different tactics.   Some of them were so effective that  I just couldn’t wait to go to their site and learn more,  the more persuasive ones even got me halfway to reaching for my credit card before I realized this was only an experiment!

 

 Many companies and sites present their promotional materials in a wide variety of concepts.

Each have their own distinctive style and designs, but more than the outline and the presentation, the content and the articles are what keeps the attention of your potential customer locked on to your opt-in marketing medium. Creativity is the key.  Here’s my findings:

 

 Keep your promotional materials light, creative and original. Many people are stressed out as it is.  Getting a stuffy business proposal rather than a lighthearted e-mail may just agitate them more.

 A warm friendly content or banter is always more welcomed than a serious business proposal.

 While you do want your customers to take you and your products and services seriously, you also want to show them that you know how to have fun.

 

 Make your materials eye catching and grabbing so they wo’nt be able to take their eyes off them.

 

 Have good content even if it means investing in an experienced and professional copywriter to write them for you.  

 

 Build trust between you and your customers and stablish your credibility in what you write.  It must be informative but not stuffy. Let go of the professional jargons and “talk” to your recipients.

 

 Outline the benefits of your product and services and why people need what you are offering. But do not  be too demanding and too persuasive. your content should entertain your prospects as well as lead them to buying from you.