Archive for Online Education
Do Christmas in July Sales Work?
Posted by: | CommentsI am part of a wonderful group called Online Business Success where we support and encourage each other in all our online venues. Truly this group has become a family and we decided to run a Christmas in July Sale for the month. There were 11 of us that decided to join in and we used our Ebay stores for this promotion.
One of our members made a great graphic that we could use for the month to promote our sales. We each choose what percentage we wanted to use for the sale and almost all were store wide sales.
We advertised on various places including Twitter, Facebook and quite a few blogs as well as our group blog. I think today any online venue needs a lot of promotion and networking to be successful and this is what we were doing.
Overall the sales varied for our members but since this is often a slow month for sales any increase is a plus for us. I know my sales were up for the month of July and I know that this promotion helped me.
We hope to put together another group promotion soon and would really like to do them for the rest of the year.
I was wondering if you ran a Christmas in July sale and did it work for you?
How Do You Focus Your Time on the Computer?
Posted by: | CommentsEvery day we each awake to a new day with 24 hours in it. This is the same for each and every one of us so why do some people accomplish a lot more during those hours then others? I would love to know that secret if there is one and put it to work for me in both my business and personal life.
I like most people get on the computer first thing in the morning and check email and sites we sell on. I have been taking a few minutes in those early morning hours to gather my thoughts and write down what I want to accomplish in a to do list. I actually write it in a small notebook that I carry with me and I can hear you gasp now. What you do it with paper and pencil? The old fashioned way?? I actually also post it to a group I belong to and so that helps me keep accountable to myself and to them on what I plan to do for the day.
I love the computer and all the Internet capable gadgets but have found that carrying a simple small notebook and pen with me is what works best for me. We are all different and I would think most people would much rather keep that kind of list on their phone or computer and that’s good too as long as you use it. This list has helped me to to stay focused and as the day goes on think about what I need to get done. For me actually putting it on paper also seems to mean more then just trying to remember it during the day in my head.
I am sure there are some that can do that list every day in their heads but I know I am not one of them. I do believe that it doesn’t matter how you do your list or what you use to keep track of it just doing one every day will help you accomplish more in a day.
What do you think? Do you do a list? Does it help?
How Do You Search for an Item?
Posted by: | CommentsSelling online today is a lot more then just listing an item, selling and then shipping. I think that’s true for most any type of item since there is so much competition today for sales. I keep hearing that it’s important to know your buyers and just how do we do that? One of the ways we can learn about our customers is to find out how they search for items.
There are two names that come to mind for searches one is Google and the other is on Ebay. You are right they are not the same but I think many people search Google or look on Ebay for an item. The question is do your customers search Google or Ebay or even somewhere else for your items?
People that sell on Ebay have free Traffic Reports that can give you a lot of information. If you are an Ebay Seller you need to check them out and learn from them about your customers. I did an earlier blog post about Traffic reports and I have learned a lot from mine.
Google uses Google Analytics to give sellers a lot of information. These are a bit different then Ebay Traffic Reports but are very useful. There are many different selling sites today and a lot of them offer Google Analytics to their sellers. You can also set up an account for a website if you want.
To be a successful online seller I think it really helps to know how people are finding your item. The point of learning this is to target your marketing to where your buyers are.
I know if I am looking for a one of a kind collectible item I will look for it on Ebay first then go to Google. If I happen to be looking for something new I will often look at Google first.
My question today is where to you search for an item?
Email Love it or Hate It?
Posted by: | CommentsEmail is an amazing thing really we sit here at our computers and can send an email all around the world in seconds. Then if they are on their computer also they can send one right back. If you really stop and think about it that is amazing. Does that sentence tell you I grew up before computers? I can remember when I had a lot of pen pals I would write to all over the world. There was such a feeling of excitement when the mailman came to see if I got a letter. Then I would sit and read and re-read that letter as we shared our lives. The next thing was sitting down and writing back and many times those letters would be pages long.
There is no excitement waiting for the mailman anymore all they seem to bring is junk mail or bills unless you pay your bills online. We turn on our computers and type and hit send in the email world. I know how much better in most ways email is but yes some days I yearn to have once a day mail delivery and the joy of reading and writing a letter.
Those days are gone and there are a lot of good things about email but one bad thing is there is so much of it. The other aspect of email is it is constant. Email just never seems to stop and I wonder how many people empty their inbox every day? The bad part is the distraction that no matter what you are doing on the computer or your phone the temptation to check your email is always there. I know we have all said okay 15 minutes of email then I will go do this and do you really only look at it for 15 minutes? If you do that is great and I try my best but we all know how hard that really is.
How do you feel about email do you love it or hate it? I think most of us are somewhere in between it is the best thing in the world on some days and others days it will make us nuts.
Staying Postive as an Ebay Seller
Posted by: | CommentsI have been an Ebay Seller since 2003 and have seen a lot of changes and ups and downs on the site. I know there are a lot of negative things going around about Ebay and like anything else we all seem to hear the negative rather then the positive. You all know the saying one bad customer will tell 10 people and one good customer will tell one person and that is true about Ebay. Overall I enjoy selling on Ebay and plan to continue and truly want Ebay to be around for many years to come.
How do you stay postive amid all the negative things being said about Ebay? I think the best thing to do is really focus on your sales and your business and just pay little attention to everything else. If Ebay works for you and you have good sales then just continue to do what you are doing. I try to do that and am working on improving my sales. I have a goal to become a TRS before the fall selling season and I think it really helps if you are a Top Rated Seller. I do this more on a part time basis rather then full time so it is not quite as easy to really get those sales numbers up but I am working towards that goal.
I know as an Ebay Seller it is good to be around other successful sellers and stay away from the boards for the part. Ebay has a lot of discussion boards which for a long time I would read and learn a lot. I think over the years there are a lot of people that tend to post negative things and then the discussion just goes downhill. I haven’t really checked out the boards for a long time in fact I actually wondered why some of the people that were posting were selling there if they were so unhappy.
I think amid all of Ebay’s changes it can make even happy sellers crazy at times. I sell on Amazon and although they do make small but important changes it doesn’t cause the uproar the Ebay has when they roll out their changes. The one thing that bothers me is Ebay makes so many changes so often it can really impact a sellers bottom line if they don’t keep up. There is also a lot of work involved when things need to be taken off listings or category updates for instance.
I would love to know any other hints you have for staying positive as an Ebay Seller.
How Focused Should a Blog Be?
Posted by: | CommentsI have been doing this 30 Day Blog Post Challenge and I am really enjoying it. I have my own site and have this blog on here but had been blogging in a hit or miss fashion until joining in the Challenge. I am really hoping to keep going with this after the challenge is over and wondered just how focused a blog should be? Is there really a right or wrong answer to that? I have been reading more about blogging and many seem to recommend a very focused or niche blog in order to gain readers and make some money. I am wondering if this can also be done with blogs that are not quite as focused.
We all have lives that are not very focused on one topic on any given day. That is just the way life is work, kids, phone calls, errands and minor and major emergencies make up our day.
I had picked the name Book Corner Cafe when I needed a name to start selling on Amazon. Then along came this site and I wanted to have a Cafe Atmosphere here which would involved a lot of different topics. If you go to a Cafe and have a cup of coffee and sit and listen you will hear many different types of conversations and people from all walks of life.
Now the question is does that make for a good blog and many seem to think the answer is no. I understand if you follow a blog you often follow it for the topic and also to learn so is there really room for a Cafe type Blog? I have been thinking about this more since doing this challenge and have mainly focused on Ebay, Online Selling, and business posts. I am using this to ask what you think and wonder if I broaden my topics will that help or hurt my blog?
How Often Do You Check Your Seller Dashboard on Ebay?
Posted by: | CommentsEvery Ebay seller knows about their dashboard, DSR’s, TRS and Powersellers and even if you don’t check them all the time we all think about them. I hadn’t checked mine in awhile and was looking at some other things and decided to check. I have 100% feedback and have a lot of great customers so I haven’t really kept my eye on mine lately. Today was the day and I thought I better check. How often do you check your store listings?
I went to my dashboard and saw everything looked about the same and I really didn’t need to worry about anything. I have had some sales and so this is usually a slower time for me anyway so there was nothing out of the ordinary going on. I happened to see the link See what it takes to become Top-rated on your next evaluation. I really didn’t ever pay a lot of attention to all this. I basically list, sell, ship and when I get feedback I leave feedback. I think unless I really saw a problem I wouldn’t check the dashboard to often. I remember when it first came out and I checked it every day for about 2 weeks and decided that would make me nuts. I was better off doing the best I could with listing, answering questions and shipping quickly and let the DSR’s and feedback fall where they would. Don’t get me wrong this is very important but if I am doing the best possible can that is all I really can do.
Okay back to that link if you go to your dashboard and you are not a Top Rated Seller you will see this See what it takes to become Top-rated on your next evaluation so you know I just had to check it out. The next page that come up shows you where you stand for the new buyer protection change that will come in Sept so okay mine looked fine and I closed that little window.
This next page shows you were you stand and I had all green check marks except Bronze Powerseller. That made me think what does it take to be a Bronze Powerseller? Remember I said I basically list, sell and ship and never really thought I would sell that much. If you look at the top yellow box there is a link that says what it takes to become a Powerseller. I was surprised since it takes $3000 of sales in a year and mine was only 200 off of that. I couldn’t believe it and not that I will make that goal this month but it was good to know how close I was.
I did some thinking today and I have 6 more days until my review so I decided to run a store wide sale to see if by chance I can reach that goal. If I don’t I won’t be to unhappy but since I am this close I may have to think about this for the next month and see if I can reach that goal.
So make sure you check out what it will take to be a Powerseller the next time you look at your Dashboard.
You know I just have to add this that if you would like to you can check out my store listings that are on sale.
Meet My Friends Doing the Blog Post Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsThis is day 12 of the 30 Day Blog Post Challenge and I am really enjoying this. I thought at first I didn’t have the time and then realized I only needed 150 words for the post. In the beginning I counted the words but soon stopped when I realized it was very easy to hit 150 words. I also wondered if I had enough to talk about but then realized I love to talk and love people so it is pretty easy to come up with a topic. My husband of course says I talk to much but that is a post for another day.
First of all I want to thank Trish for suggesting this Blog Post Challenge to us because if she didn’t I wouldn’t have been doing it.
I would like you to meet my friends who decided to join in with the challenge. I know it has helped me a lot to have us all doing it and encouraging each other as we work towards 30 posts.
Trish has a great blog called Birdhouse Books that showcases a lot of her vintage items. You will find photos and information about her items and great tips for selling on Ebay. She covers a lot of tips for both new and seasoned sellers and she is certainly a great person to follow.
Beth has a blog called the The Compulsive Collector and her unique writing style will make this a blog to follow. You never know what item she will be discussing and great photos to go along with it. She has been selling on Ebay from the beginning and has a great array of vintage items for sale.
Kat’s blog is called Ebaying in Alabama and is all about women. This special woman sells woman’s products and does quite a few charity auctions. She showcases woman in her blog which is very inspirational. There is always a post here to learn something or find a new product you just can’t live without.
Suzie is quite an experienced blogger and shares a lot of good information about Ebay on her blog Ask the Ebay Queen. You can always find items that are selling for good money and things you should keep an eye out for . The pictures are great too along with the posts about her family make this a blog to follow.
Danni has a blog Udderlygoodstuff and has a very good eye for picking up Woo Hoo’s at auctions or yard sales. She is very knowledgeable about all kinds of vintage items and mixes her posts with knowledge and life in general. You never know what she will be writing about next but it will good.
Cat writes on her Shushiboofays blog and she is our friend who is writing and making money doing this. This blog is a great mix of anything and everything and you never know what she will come up with next. Each post is a great read and she is a very good writer I know you will enjoy reading this blog.
Okay there is my list of friends doing this challenge and so I wanted to share them with you. It is amazing how we are all doing this yet our blogs are all so different. I recommend each and every one to check out and to follow.