How to Make Success a Habit

Want to make success a habit in your life? If you’ve got determination, it may be simpler than what you think. All you need is a slight change in your thinking pattern. Changing your thoughts will change your beliefs, your expectations, your attitude, and consequently, your behavior. A change in behavior will eventually lead you to a change in performance. And when you perform at your peak, you succeed. It doesn’t matter where you are in life, or what you do for a living, if you just modify the way you look at things, the way you think about things, you can achieve success.

The following steps can help you develop the habit of success:

1. Develop Real Desire.

What is really important for you? What do you really want in life? Truly, if you had everything you ever wanted right now, how would that picture look? For some, it may be a brand new home, for others a brand new Porsche. Maybe you want more time with your family, work from home full time or a fancy vacation every few months. Whatever it is, you need to develop true desire for the things you want. This desire has to come not only from your mind, but from your heart, and it should be your driving force. Like a compass on a ship, your desire will guide you through rough waters until you get to your destination.

2. Get Rid of Ambivalence and Be Realistic.

Ambivalence about what you want will undermine your success. Make up your mind, and be realistic about your desires. You may want to become the best olympic diver, and that is fine if you’re 16 and have been diving since you were 2, but… how realistic is that if you are over 30 and have never taken a class in diving? Plan realistically when you think about your desire. 3. Use Your Desire to Get Motivated. Successful people use what they desire as motivation. If you want a brand new home, get a picture of the house you’d like to own. Frame it and hang it over your desk and look at it every time things get though. It will help you see things from a different perspective, and will keep you motivated to move on.

3. Spell Out Your Specific Goals.

Decide how you’re going to get the specific things that you want. This should help you determine what you need to do to get closer to the fulfillment of your desire. Let’s say that for you to achieve the home of your dreams, you need to save $25K for a downpayment. If you are like me, you won’t get to save that by working for somebody else. So how can you achieve that? By working on an independent venture, either to supplement your income or to replace it altogether. That should be one of your goals.

4. Chose Achievable, Simple Goals.

Chose simple goals to start, even if they are not impressive. Once you’ve succeeded at achieving the simple ones, reward yourself and go on to achieve more elaborate goals. Always write them down, and keep them in your mind all the time, no matter what you’re doing. Focusing on your goals will help you get through the day. One trait of successful people is their ability to focus.

5. Develop a Complete Plan of Action.

Break your main goal into smaller goals, and then the small goals into simple steps. Then, give yourself definite deadlines to complete each step. Decide on the first step of your first small goal, and concentrate on it. Do you want to start a business in Network Marketing, but have heard all kinds of stories that make you wonder if it’s right for you? Your first step then is to get educated and informed. Gather all of the information you need to help you make a wise decision. Decide on the amount of time you’ll give yourself to do this task, and meet your deadline. Stick with your plan. Just do it. This is the attitude of people who are determined to succeed.

6. Stay Positive.

Successful people have the discipline to stay positive even through rough times. Also, they don’t worry about things going wrong. Once negativity steps into your thinking, it can immobilize you and stop you from taking action. Successful people know that worrying is useless. If you think about it, most things we worry about don’t ever happen anyhow. Even when some things go wrong, you’ll be able to handle whatever comes your way if you have a positive attitude. Don’t let imaginary problems stop you from taking action.

Determination and optimism can carry you a long way toward achieving your immediate and long-term goals to attain the life you want. When your vision is clear, you don’t let yourself get bogged down by temporary problems. Even when times get though and you feel like giving up, your vision will carry you through those moments. Even if you’ve made mistakes in the past, you’ll be able to learn from them, pick yourself up and keep going. Attitude will allow you to navigate your way around obstacles, and keep your eyes, mind and your whole being focused on the big picture. Teach yourself to remain centered and focused, like successful people do. And do whatever it takes to reach your goals, just because what you’re working for is worth the effort. Remember your desire?

Written By:
Tamara Baruhovich

Tamara Baruhovich Websites & Links

Blog URL:
http://www.tools-for-abundance.com/abundance-blog.html

Business URLs:
http://www.Tools-For-Abundance.com

http://www.DiscoverYourPotential.org

http://www.Reiki-Master-Training.com

Personal URL:
http://www.tools-for-abundance.com/about_me.html

MySpace URL: http://www.myspace.com/health4us

Twitter URL: http://twitter.com/Abundance4Me

eCrater Adds Scroll Ability To Additional Item Pictures

eCrater has added a wonderful new feature that makes viewing additional item pictures in the listing really slick.

If a seller is using more than the main picture in their listing (eCrater allows up to 10 pictures per listing), the additional pictures appear next to the main picture. Each of these pictures are 75 X 75 pixels and they are clickable. Once clicked, a full size version of the picture pops up in the main picture area. If there are more than 4 pictures of the item, a scroll appears allowing the shopper to scroll through the additional mini pictures to the side of the main picture.

There is no more hoping that shoppers see the little numbers below the main picture so they know to look at all of the views the seller has to offer. This new picture feature is a great plus!

Click the picture for larger view.
eCrater just seems to be getting better and better! The little extras are not heavy on older computers or for users who may still be using dial-up interent services. This means that sellers get the extras they need to be successful and shoppers can shop without having to upgrade their computers.

We have been on eCrater for several years now and we love it! Every year we see our sales increase and their support staff is more than willing to help whenever you contact them. eCrater also has a community forum filled with a wealth of information. Did I remember to tell you that eCrater offers you an ecommerce store for FREE? Well, they sure do. Sellers keep all of the money when they make a sale but for the amount that the payment service charges. If the seller is paid with a check or money order, all of the money is theirs!

Investments Quote By Warren Buffett

“In investments, there’s no such thing as a called strike. You can stand there at the plate and the pitcher can throw a ball right down the middle; and if it’s General Motors at 47 and you don’t know enough to decide on General Motors at 47, you let it go right on by and no one’s going to call a strike. The only way you can have a strike is to swing and miss.” - - by Warren Buffett

Are You Selling Quantity Or Quality?

There are two main ways to sell products and services (this includes applying for a regular "job" as well, by the way). I would call them the "McDonald's style of selling" and the "Armani style of selling". The marketing style of each of these types is different and produces different results.

McDonald's Restaurants and similar businesses owe their success to size, consistency of products and service, and impeccable business systems. Because of those things, they can afford to charge less than other restaurants. They don't advertise "good" food, they advertise that it's "cheap, fast and always the same". You don't walk around with pride that you eat there, in fact you may eat there despite your best judgement. They often mention the newest deal or special. Low price is very important in this style.

Armani, on the other hand, doesn't mass-produce the same way. They don't advertise price, they advertise the "value" of the purchase. People buy Armani suits because of image (ie. "If I have an Armani suit, I look rich and successful") and because of lasting value. A Walmart-bought suit may be much cheaper but it also falls apart after the first wash. An Armani suit may in fact be a better buy in the long term.

When you are marketing your business or yourself in job interviews, know which style you want to use to market. In the "quantity" based selling, you will attract more customers, more easily. The price you pay for selling this way is that the loyalty of your customers goes only as far as your lowest price. As soon as a bigger competitor offers a better deal, your customers are gone. Also, you may work longer hours without the rewards.

In the "quality" based selling, it will likely take more time to find your customers or a job that fits. Also, you will need to spend more time on positioning your services as uniquely valuable. The good thing is that you are seen as a partner to your customers and it is difficult to replace you. You will have a far higher customer loyalty and likely a high satisfaction level, too.

© Pavla Michaela Polcarova

What Does Your Gut Say?

Don, a computer programmer and amateur saxophonist, spent the better part of a year driving his long-suffering family all over the Midwest in search of the perfect replacement for his aging horn. After a particularly memorable trip involving carsick twins and pursuit by an outraged Rottweiler, his wife finally demanded he buy a sax, any sax, or he and his old horn would end up sharing a rented room with a hot plate.

Michelle, a statistics professor, is the go-to gal when her friends are in the market for anything from a microwave to a labradoodle-because whatever it is, she's exhaustively researched it. Ironically, Michelle rarely buys anything herself-in fact, her dishwasher bit the dust three months ago, but she just can't commit to a new one when she suspects that with just a little more digging, she'll nail down the perfect choice.

Lisa, an engineer for a major consumer products firm, was among several staffers tasked to determine whether musical disposable diapers could be the Next Big Thing. She spent five days detailing every possible reason why the product was too impractical and expensive to manufacture (not to mention just plain annoying). She also put in overtime computing exactly how much money it would lose over the course of the next fiscal year. In the meantime, one of her colleagues gave her boss the yes-or-no answer he was really looking for after just one day.

Don, Michelle, and Lisa are born researchers-and in their chosen careers, their passion for digging deep often serves them well. But when decisions need to be made on the fly or with limited information, they choke. Kathy Kolbe, a pioneering researcher in the study of action and decision-making, calls people like this Fact Finders: those who are only comfortable taking action when all available data has been gathered and weighed.
Kolbe's deceptively simple online questionnaire (www.kolbe.com) identifies four different action styles: Fact Finders, or the researchers and engineers of the world; Quick Starts, who think fast on their feet and make their best decisions intuitively; Follow Throughs, natural organizers whose spice racks are alphabetized; and Implementors, who think best when working hands-on in 3-D.

The two biggest takeaways from Kolbe's research are these: that no one style is superior to any other, and that we all have some degree of capability in each of the four categories. Even the most impetuous Quick Start has some organizational skills, although they may not believe that filing cabinets and flow charts are their friends. Similarly, even off-the-chart Fact Finders have gut instincts, although they may not be able to hear or trust them.

But by learning to tune in to those faint intuitive cries, a Fact Finder can gain forward momentum. Note: listening to your intuition doesn't mean going with the first stray thought that drifts, cloudlike, through your head. It means using gut instinct as a starting place, then selectively researching until you have just enough information to confirm or contradict your original hypothesis.

It's hard to hear your inner voice if you drown it out with the "noise" of too much information. Before you start researching a decision, take a moment to imagine that you already know the answer. Hearing what you already know may be as simple as paying attention to your body as you consider the alternatives.

If you're trying to decide between vacationing in Mexico or Las Vegas, mentally try on each experience and do a quick body scan. Are your muscles loose and relaxed? Are you shoulders beginning to creep up around your ears? Are you clenching your teeth, or holding your breath? It's relatively easy to trick your brain into believing you want something you don't; it's much harder to get your body on board with a decision that just feels intuitively wrong.

Once you've learned to hear your intuitive self, it may still take some time before you're ready to trust it-and that's okay. If your son had just gotten his license, you probably wouldn't hand him your car keys and send him on a cross-country road trip. You'd help him build his skills-and our trust-on smaller excursions, like a drive to the store.

Similarly, begin earning your own trust by going with your gut on small decisions whose outcomes are of minimal consequence: Paper or plastic? Chinese or Thai? Try seeing a movie that sounds intriguing without reading any reviews, or buying a book because you something about the title or the subject resonates with you. In other words, let your intuition take the wheel one short trip at a time, until you develop some sense that it can handle the open road.

If you're having trouble going it alone, team up. Think of people you know who are excitable, talk quickly, have big ideas, and get bored easily. These are the Quick Starts of the world, and when you're trying to make a fast decision, they can be your best friends. Their Quick Start energy will give you a kick in the pants; your Fact Finder sensibilities will keep them from running amok.

By listening to his gut-and the sound of each sax he was checking out-Don probably could have found a great sax in two months instead of ten. By leading with her intuition, Michelle could have focused on two or three brands, made a decision, and be happily loading her new dishwasher instead of lamenting her dishpan hands. By brainstorming with a colleague, Lisa might have had the courage to go with the little voice screaming that musical diapers were non-starters, and have spent one day confirming her hypothesis instead of five days compiling data her supervisors didn't want or need.

So the next time you find yourself unable to make a decision and drowning in input, consider these words from Jonas Salk, creator of the polio vaccine, and doubtless a solid Fact Finder: "Intuition will tell the thinking mind where to look next."

In other words, what does your gut say?

By Laura McReynolds

PestaShop For Stand Alone Websites - It's FREE!

PrestaShop is an interesting, relatively new open-source software for you to create your own stand alone website. They just released 1.3.0 Beta but if you are going to use this software, use the previous version, 1.2.5. They are still working out the bugs in the 1.3.0.

We haven't officially started tinkering with this software yet but we have read many reviews on it. Most people state how easy it is to implement. If you have issues, you can always go to PrestaShop forums for help. It is a lively community with plenty of helpful people around. There are even some members who are willing to set up your shop for you at a reasonable cost.

We are going to use PrestaShop for our newest store.

PrestaShop also offers stores on their website for a fee. We haven't considered that option but the information on that topic is as follows:

Prestabox is a turnkey e-shop that you can set up in 10 minutes. Don't pay attention to the technical side, just sell. Hosting on high performance servers.

Just fill your shop name in the field and follow instructions. Customize your e-store with all PrestaShop included features.

Change graphical appearance, fill your products in your catalog, create promotions, optimize SEO and etc... When your catalog is ready, open your shop and make your first sales! Follow and track your customers with complete statistics built-in tools to optimize your e-shop to sell more and more!

Start at 1% of your sales and a minimum of 15€ from the 10th month.

PrestaShop™ is a professional e-Commerce shopping cart software that you can download and use for free.
The big advantage of open-source software: you're never 'locked' to expensive commercial software.

Our dedicated team and growing user community join forces to fix bugs and add new functionality at a rate proprietary software companies can rarely claim. Join the Open Source revolution!

Shop owners appreciate PrestaShop's easy-to-use Back Office tool for adding and fine-tuning their storefronts (Front Office). With new & sophisticated Back-Office functionality added regularly, shop owners don't need to rely on others to make their Front Office look and act the way they want it to.

Developers appreciate the clean structure of PrestaShop code that they can easily adapt to their client's needs for quick turn-around. Thanks to its use of CSS and transplantable module blocks, the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution can be customized for small or medium-sized businesses working within tight deadlines.

Despite its technical sophistication and advanced functionality, the PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution is very light (around 6 MB not including translation files), so it's easy to download, install, and update.

PrestaShop is so lightweight and speedy, even customers with slow connection speeds will enjoy buying from you!

On the Web, appearances matter. In many cases, you really can judge a Website by its cover!

The PrestaShop e-Commerce Solution was built to take advantage of essential Web 2.0 innovations such as dynamic AJAX-powered features and next-generation ergonomy. PrestaShop guides users through your product catalog intelligently and effortlessly, turning intrigued visitors into paying customers.

FEATURES:

Front Office - Your website that the pulic sees

Special deals (price reductions, gift vouchers)
Featured products on homepage
Top sellers on homepage
New items on homepage
'Free shipping' offers
Cross-selling (Accessories)
Product image zoom
Order out-of-stock items
Customer subscription & user accounts
Unlimited payment methods
Payment by bank wire
Google™ Checkout module
Cash-On-Delivery (COD)
Preconfigured for Paypal™
Multiple-recipient contact form
Product tagging & tag cloud
Search
Merchandise return (RMAs) & credit slips
Package tracking
Offer gift-wrapping & recycled packaging
PDF customer invoice
Shopping Cart recall
Sale of services & virtual goods
Custom Favicon
RSS feed
Newsletter opt-in
'Pick up in-store' option
Customized product (text and images)
Wishlist
Loyal customer program
Affiliate program
Sponsor-a-friend benefit program
Customer product reviews

Back Office - The administrative area of your site

Unlimited categories & subcategories
Full-featured WYSIWYG text editor
Unlimited product attribute combinations
Unlimited product specs
Unlimited images with automatic resizing & file optimization
Unlimited currencies
Unlimited tax settings
Unlimited carriers & destinations
Tax by state, country, both, zones, or no taxes
Digressive pricing (Quantity discounts)
Real-time currency exchange rates
Inventory management
SMS/Text-message alerts
Add/delete function modules
Bar codes
Contextual help
Attribute Combo Generator
Delivery status notification e-mails (customizable)
Unlimited languages & dialects
Import/export language translations
13 default language translations
Search Engine Optimization (SEO)
Friendly URLs / Permalinks
100% modifiable graphic themes
Back Office users & permissions (ACL )
Maintenance Mode
Minimum order amount
Newsletter contact export
Alias search
Bulk lister/import .CSV files
SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption
Visitors online
Content Management System (CMS)
Reports
Customer groups

COMING SOON:

Product comparison
Advanced search
FAQ module
Multiple Shops
Printable shipping label
1-click purchase
Per-item shipping cost
Download catalog as PDF
Export products as .CSV file

Click here to go to the PrestaShop website.

Atomic Mall Announces "Cart Offers"

On 02-17-2010, Atomic Mall's new Cart Offer system went live, allowing shoppers to fill their carts with multiple items from a seller's store, then submit an offer for the entire bundle! Previously, buyers wanting to negotiate pricing on multiple store items had to send individual offers on each item, and then complete separate checkouts for each approved offer. Now the entire process is wrapped up into a single neat transaction, saving valuable time and allowing shoppers to leverage the power of bulk-lot buying to secure great deals.

NOTE: All graphics submitted below are clickable to enlarge them for better viewing.

Making a Cart Offer is a simple process:

1. Buyer selects an Offers-enabled item and adds it to the cart:


2. Buyer adds additional items from the same Seller. If the seller has enabled offers on all the items, the "Cart Offers" graphic will display, alerting the shopper that they may submit an offer for the lot:


3. Clicking the image transfers the Buyer to the Cart Offer entry page, showing the cart items along with their asking prices and respective shipping fees. If the Seller has a combined shipping discount set, this discount is reflected in the totals shown. The Buyer may then enter an offer for a lower purchase price on the entire cart:


4. Buyer is given a final review page, and clicks the "Confirm" button to lock in the offer, sending it to the Seller:


5. The final confirmation screen appears, and the Seller immediately receives the offer with complete details of the items and prices involved - both as an email notice and an account alert:


At this point the Seller can accept the offer, decline it, or send a counteroffer back to the Buyer. If the offer is ultimately accepted, the Buyer is provided with a unique url to complete the purchase at the newly negotiated price.

You Are Much More Than Your “Job” by Jane Powell

"Your skills, talents and expertise are everywhere.”

At work, it’s easy for your valuable skills and knowledge to shine. But, the truth is, your abilities and expertise reach beyond your work.

Your emotional, intellectual, social and organizational skills are just as valuable as your work-related skills. These are skills and talents developed along the rough road of life. Don’t discount them. Cherish and nourish these skills; you’ll gain a stronger sense of balance among all the demands of your day.

Remember, happiness and satisfaction surround you when your wisdom is treasured, whether it’s work related or not.

Black Hills Gold Jewelry By Coleman

About Black Hills Gold Jewerly By Coleman

Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Coleman was founded in 1977 and is located on the south edge of Rapid City on your way through the majestic Black Hills of South Dakota USA. They are known as the world's largest producer and supplier of Black Hills Gold Jewelry. This notable distinction is attributed to their large assortment of attractive designs and guaranteed satisfaction.

Manufacturing:

While many customers might believe that the name "Black Hills Gold Jewelry" denotes a certain type of mined gold, it actually refers to the design of the jewelry. Based on the legend, Black Hills Gold features grape leaves, grape clusters and grapevines in a tri-color motif of green, rose and yellow gold. The distinctive green and rose gold colors are created by adding silver and copper alloys to yellow gold. By Federal mandate, this style of jewelry must be manufactured in the Black Hills of South Dakota in order to carry the name "Black Hills Gold Jewelry."


Every new design begins with detailed sketches, and the handcrafting of a master wax model by skilled artisans. Next, a silver model and production models are created. A sturdy rubber mold is then made which allows for the reproduction of a design many times over. Each rubber mold is pressure injected with hot molten wax. Cooled wax designs are fused to a tree which is placed in a stainless steel can. Liquid plaster of Paris is poured into the cans, surrounding the wax trees. After the plaster is set, the cans are stacked in a kiln for an overnight burnout cycle where the plaster hardens and the wax is completely melted. Hence, this type of burnout is termed, "the lost wax process."


Next, the cavities in the plaster, left by the melted wax, are carefully filled with a mixture of melted gold and alloy. When the gold cools and hardens, the plaster is knocked away and the cast gold designs are cut from each tree. These jewelry designs are then tumbled for an initial polishing. Component leaves are wriggled in a special technique to create a frosty finish and engraved with cuts to add a shimmering look. Leaves, grapes and other findings or jewelry elements are then soldered to the cast design in a soldering oven. Once all of the gold components are soldered in place, the jewelry is tumbled again for additional polishing.


Coleman takes pride in the fact that their jewelry is not flashed with a gold plating. Rather, they commit great time to the polishing and buffing stages in order to enhance the natural karat gold sheen that is more appealing to customers. After the polishing and buffing stages, each piece of jewelry is meticulously cleaned and subsequently coated with a special solution to preserve its beauty. Finally, precious and semiprecious stones are set as the original design determines.


Absolutely no jewelry is released until it has been inspected by artisans specifically trained in identifying even the most minute imperfection that would prevent it from meeting our tight quality standards.

Black Hills Gold Jewelry by Coleman proudly provides a lifetime warranty against defects in materials and workmanship.

Jewelry Specifications

Jewelry is 10K gold or sterling silver with 12K leaves, 12K roses and 10K grapes unless otherwise denoted. Coleman Black Hills Gold Jewelry is nickel free.

Lockets are 1/20 14K gold-filled or sterling silver with 12K leaves, 12K roses and 10K grapes.

Bangles are 7" in diameter and are 1/20 14K gold-filled or sterling silver with 12K leaves, 12K roses and 10K grapes.

Bracelets and clasps are 10K or sterling silver with 12K leaves, 12K roses and 10K grapes unless otherwise denoted. Bracelet links can be removed or added for an additional fee. Please inquire.

A complimentary, 18", 1/20 14K gold-filled chain or sterling silver chain is included with each pendant unless otherwise denoted.

A complimentary 20", 1/20 14K gold-filled chain or sterling silver chain is included with each locket.

Necklaces with attached chains are approximately 18" in total length.

Money clips and some watches are black powder coated or plated base metal with 12K leaves and 10K grapes.

Just For You Auctions Offers 12 Months Free Use

There's a great offer that you may want to look into at one of the up and coming sites, Just For You Auctions. Looks like a fantastic offer to check out.

From their site:

More than Sixty Stores Take Advantage of Free 12-Month Offer at J4UA.com

'Rethinking Retail' Growing Sales Venue Records over 1,000,000 Site Visits in January

Just 4 You Auctions launched its seller-operated sales venue in November, 2009. The site was conceived by online sellers interested in rethinking retail online. Most of the early store operators have successful experience selling on other online sales and auction sites, but longed to have greater control of the sales situation in addition to a high standard for honesty and cordiality. The site is SSL certified, and secure sales online and offline take place without the site owner ever having access to Buyers' credit card or other contact information.

The site operators and sellers are committed to secure transactions, and the protections offered to any credit card or third-party payment recipient (such as PayPal) extend to protect both sellers and buyers on the site. Self-policed members, the site's focus is sales rather than social networking. The pay-as-you-go attitude extends to members prioritizing security over visuals -- and though the site's visual elements are still fairly basic, the security and quality of vendors is first rate.

Free stores continue to be available by contacting Support@J4UA.com. Be sure to mention whether you wish to have a storefront without fees, or to be an individual items seller. Sellers may choose to run auctions or to sell fixed price and 'best offer' only. Sellers and buyers are free to contact one another about sales. Because sellers pay no listing or final value fees, prices on most items run 10% to 20% lower than those seen Elsewhere.

We know spring will come. We're waiting for you!

What I Learned About My Friends

No matter how old a person is and no matter what venue they operate in, there are people along the way that become friends.

During our little time out, we learned lessons about who our loyal friends are. No, we are not in grade school or high school but even as adults, we seem to go through these cycles where we have to be reminded that things are not always as they seem.

It broke our hearts when some of those who we thought were our friends turned their backs on us, some have yet to check to see why we were gone and so on but the friends that really hurt our feelings were the friends that stabbed us in the back. That's ok though, we now know who the imposters are.

We are so very thankful for the friends that have always been here for us and for those that have been loyal to us through thick and thin. Those are the friends that we will always trust and stand beside. We will also be there for you if / when you ever need us.

Thank you to those who have been true friends to us!

Hey! Are you Buzzin'? You Should Be...

Google has come out with another great product and this one could give Twitter a serious run for it's money.

This product is called Google Buzz.

I have only been involved with it for 2 days but I can already see that it is much more efficient than many of the other social tools available.

You need a GMail account to use it and Buzz is completely integrated into GMail. This means that you don't have to go to other sites to access it if you are already in your GMail account.

You can import your Twitter contacts through this link:
http://tw2buzz.com/

There's a ton more cool stuff you can do.

Here's a video offered by Google Buzz:



You can follow us on Google Buzz at dakotagold1@gmail.com or you can click here to read our profile and / or follow us from there.

Hope to see you buzzin' real soon!

Thanks for your patience!

We want to thank everyone who has been patiently awaiting our return.

We will be posting new information this week.

Gee, it seems like forever!

Thanks again!

Fried Motherboard

Just thought I'd let you all know that my ailing computer finally died.

While it was only 3 years old, the motherboard is fried.

It's a sad day because it was my first, built for me computer.
It was a customized, top of the line HP.

I will be back as soon as I can replace it.

eBay Top Rated Seller & Mouseover Effect Changes

The new eBay changes are rolling out in regards to the new Top Rated Seller program. We noticed the TRS badge on several seller's pages but we also noted the badge in a product search. It is located between the item title and the listing format note.

Then we accidently mousedover the left navigation section and found an interesting surprise. Here it is:

We wonder just what kind of message this lovely purple lined pop-up is sending to buyers since a lot of sellers do not qualify for the TRS program? Is eBay trying to say that those without a badge are lousy sellers? If the sellers without the badge are not such great sellers, why are they allowed to remain on the site? Nothing like buyers being able to filter sellers right out of business!

What is interesting and notable about this program we had previously mentioned on our blog:
- Some eBay members who have been inactive for several months qualify for this new Top Rated Seller program and they never lost their PowerSeller status during this time (they should have according to eBay's policies and sales requirements). -

The biggest problem with this new program is the same as the old program but it is exaggerated a bit since buyers now have learned the power they have to make or break a seller. The problem: unverified opinions due to the perception of one member of the transaction. Without the ability of sellers to defend themselves, their accounts can fall under attack for any number of reasons, many of which may not be any fault of their own. Also not taken into account is that a competitor could be sabotaging another sellers account.

The other thing to note is this program is set up to be more secretive than the old one because it covers a 3 month rating period and there is a delay in revealing the ratings to the seller. This allows for more anonymity for buyers but it does nothing for sellers whatsoever.

The new seller dashboard rolled out also. We noticed that a seller can now download reports about their low DSR's but they are well after the fact which makes it impossible for a seller to rectify any problems. The most recent feedback we were able to access was for 09-15 (2 weeks ago). These reports also fail to reveal the specific transaction for which there was an issue so a seller has no idea of what it is that went wrong or if it was just a rating issued by someone who had personal issues with the seller.

There seem to be a lot of new tools to use against sellers. It's like eBay is doing everything they can to knock sellers down even further than they have since the last major changes in 2008.

It is our feeling that many sellers will no longer be at eBay next spring when the site starts axing people for not meeting the new requirements. All of this is just another step in their weeding out process that began 05-19-08.

The whole situation with eBay is very disheartening, to say the least.

eBay - Items Paid By eCheck Show Paid & Waiting To Ship Before Cleared Payment

We have an interesting situation on eBay. This is the first time that we have noticed this happening but it could have been going on before this. We went to put together our packages and noticed one item that is in our eBay's "Paid & Waiting To Ship" section is actually pending eCheck clearance on October 2.
So why is it listed as paid on eBay?

It has always been our understanding that you should never ship before PayPal gives you the ok. For an item to show up paid and waiting to ship on eBay, appears to say that the buyer paid and it is ok to ship.

When we look at the PayPal information across the eBay item page, it shows that the payment was intiated. When we go to PayPal, we see that it is a pending payment with the red flag next to it. When we open the details, we see this:

Click the graphic to enlarge it.Once again we question - if the payment is not cleared why is this transaction showing in our paid and waiting to ship section? If the eCheck has not cleared, we have not been paid!

If a seller is really busy, they may not notice this. We have had times where we just ship as fast as we can because we have tons of orders. This will now slow us down because we will have to make sure what each item in the paid section says before we process the order any further. Then of course, we will have to go back and check it to make sure we ship once the eCheck clears.

Sellers should be careful of this so they don't ship and end up losing the item and the money should the eCheck never clear.

Bonanzle Spamming Itself - Bad Idea!

Bonanzle has made a change to the "people page" of their site. They have removed the middle section where it automatically showed members who were currently online and you could look up other members. They replaced it with their members current promo feeds to Twitter and Facebook.

Click the graphic to enlarge it.We have to ask WHY?

Many people used the old page and it was helpful to both buyers and sellers. We used it several times a day, most every day and so did many others.

The way they have set this up, it causes members to spam themselves. It is such a silly idea that it is hard to believe that this is really happening. After all, the site already has a promotion forum right at the top of this same page.

What is really funny is that the promos on the site had gotten so bad that the site administrators put a limit on how many promos a seller could post - 5 in a 3 day period. Now they add this section which allows members unlimited promos.

Some members have noted their concern about their Facebook and Twitter pages being polluted with other Bonanzle members spam and subjecting their families and friends to the same. These members used the Facebook connect link in the top right hand corner of the Bonanzle peopel page which is new and was first offered this morning. We suggest that no one use this link to avoid this issue. Also, these members say that when they log out of Bonanzle, they are automatically logged out of Twitter and Facebook. We don't know much about this as we decided not to participate in the link.

Most people do not like spam. Many people avoid Twitter and Facebook due to the recurring viruses and trojans and the spam. Now, Bonanzle members have it staring them in the face each and every time they go to the people page. Of course, then they get the same, identical spam on their social networking sites.

If spam is truly a useful marketing strategy, then this new section will also give spammers an unfair advantage over other Bonanzle members. Many people do not have time or want to join the social networking sites so this new section puts spammers way ahead of them as far as visibility. It doesn't seem right or fair to not treat all Bonanzle members equally and this new section does not promote member equality. Everyone should have a fair shake at site visibility without having to join other sites to do so.

With all of the things that have needed to be fixed since Bonanzle's beginning and the feature requests for things members have voted on, one would think that the administrators would have better things to do than to send the offsite spam back to their site, much less right in the middle of one of the sites most heavily visited pages.

We understand fully how social networking can help build a business but we seriously question just how much social networking is necessary to do so. The other question is, is Bonanzle a serious selling venue or just a house of chit chat, games and spam?

From what we see, the only thing that makes sense in all of this is that Bonanzle is likely being paid for giving up such a valuable piece of real estate on their site. They are also likely being paid if someone joins Twitter or Facebook through the new links on the site or the new section. There are no other logical reasons for such a ridiculous site change.

As far as we are concerned, this was a very bad move by Bonanzle and it does not reflect well on the site. It has also caused us to put another entry in the cons section of our list of things to consider in continuing our Bonanzle membership.

At the time of this writing, there is a forum thread on this topic that is 11 pages long. Most of the members do not like the new change. We have been patiently waiting for an official site post on the subject but there has been none in just under 7 hours since the thread was created. Click here to read the thread.

UPDATE:
Bonanzle co-founder, Mark Dorsey just responded, a little less than 8 hours since the thread began, on page 13. Mark writes:

"Did you know that Facebook accounts for more than twice the amount of traffic than Google on some major player sites?

With the recent changes at Google we realized that it is best to not put our eggs all in one basket. I would encourage you all to learn about Facebook and how you can utilize this powerful tool to your advantage. This is a very good thing."

Click here to go to that page.

So there you have it, or maybe you don't. It sort of sounds like Bonanzle administration is happy with this change. As for what they think of what their members have to say or if they are even taking it into consideration, well... we will leave that up to your interpretation.
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** Special Note:
Sellers should know that they can sell their items on the Facebook Marketplace. In doing so, they are promoting their own brand and products and not just a venue. With this option available through Facebook, we find even more questions about the necessity of the change to the Bonanzle people page. Perhaps they are banking on people not investigating Facebook further to find out they can sell directly there and without Bonanzle? It seems to us that Bonanzle is not needed if a seller intends to use Facebook frequently since they already offer a marketplace. We don't know many that would spend their time promoting on Facebook for a venue that they have to pay any kind of fee to when they can promote themselves and their products and do the selling for free on the Facebook Marketplace.
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UPDATE:
Bonanzle founder, Bill Harding has responded to the thread on page 17, about 10 hours after the thread began. Here is what he had to say:

"Hey all,

As is generally the case with Bonanzle changes, we understand it won’t be possible to make everybody happy. But we try.

In regards to regaining the link to see who’s online, that’s definitely something we can & will do. I plan to re-add that to the People page for tomorrow (just got to figure out where). In the meantime, there is a link from the homepage to see “Who’s online.”

As far as whether the list of people is more relevant than the most recent social commentary (and/or whether its “spam”), I suppose that’s always going to be debatable. The way we see it, the list of online users was not adding value in that it was limited (you could only see a very small number of the overall people online) and it duplicated functionality already available on the users page. Therefore, this didn’t seem like the most advantageous use of real estate on the People page.

If you don’t care what people have been Facebooking and Tweeting about, there is no reason for you to scroll down the page and read about it. The luxury of having them lower on the page is that you’ll only encounter them if you scroll down (or look down) to them. That said, we’ll probably still make refinements about what shows up in the list of recent FB & Twitter posts. I think that one helpful change could be to only show each user once in the list, just showing their most recent post/tweet, in cases where one person posts multiple times.

In the future, perhaps we can allow users to customize the look of the People page, such that you can see the panels that are most interesting to you. But that adds complexity in itself, so that might be a bit further down the road.

Also, if you hadn’t noticed, you’re free to hide the Facebook link in the header by clicking on it and choosing “don’t show me this again.”

Hope this helps clear up some of the confusion.
Bill"

Click here to go to that page.
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We have our own feelings about Bills official post but we will leave you to decide what he is saying beyond - if you don't like the change, don't look at it. What is easy to see, Bonanzle - the site and administration, is happy and it doesn't appear that this big mistake will be rectified soon, if ever.

Someone in the thread said that Bonanzle is a fast moving train. Well, that may be but what adverse effects will they find on this fast track or what is at the end of the tracks because of these kinds of decisions? People who are turned off by all of this will likely not sign up for the site and those that are already members will likely leave. And that member who talked about the train said to get on the train or get left at the station - at least those at the station will have a business plan (and know what it is in advance, not traveling blindly) and are likely not headed for a train wreck (brick wall) or practice unfairness (to get equal exposure on the Bonanzle site, sellers have to join outside social sites and spend hours using them).

Oh, don't forget the old agruement about whether or not buyers come to the people page. When memebers worry about certain things being seen by potential buyers or new sellers, the site always says that buyers rarely visit the page. So then what in the world is the purpose of placing the Twitter and Facebook promotions of Bonanzle items on this heavily visited page? Sellers already see the other promotions and visit each other. They see these promos on their social networking sites. Just what does the site think this is going to do as far as helping sellers complete more sales if the buyers rarely visit this page? It would be nice if they would explain just what the usefulness of the new section is.

Hey, whatever happened to the business of selling?! Sellers need buyers, not self-delivered spam!

We are very disappointed about this change. The time we have spent to set up our Bonanzle booth and all of the promoting we have done has probably been a waste. The reason being, if the site continues in this direction, we will not stay. We have plans and visions for our online selling while at the same time, we expect to be treated fairly. None of these plans or visions ever included what is going on today. We have time left on our paid membership so we will be there until it runs out. That should be enough time for Bonanzle to correct some missteps and an assortment of other unresolved site issues.
If not, adios.

UpperBid Auctions

Here's an auction site for everyone to check out. We found them on PSU and they advertise that they have buyers... Woo Hoo! We don't know anything about the site personally but it might be worth a peek. They are called UpperBid.

On this site, all sellers are from the United States. The sellers are verified through Trufina. UpperBid requires sellers to have a US address and valid phone number, payments from buyers must go through a payment processing service based in the United States or mailed to a United States address, and all items sold must ship from a United States address.

They report having 5000 members with about 13,000 auctions running right now. According to Robert King, UpperBid CEO, the site currently has a "Google rank of 4 (which is higher than most other worldwide alternatives, and we are either equal or higher in rank than every other auction under the auction site count area on PSU website except eBay, eCrater, Bonanzle, and Overstock)."

They don't currently have bulk uploading from other sites but they plan to have it in a few months.

Listing is FREE, you only pay fees for special features and a small percentage when your item sells.

If you like auction action, stop in and check them out. Here is the link again - UpperBid.

Vendio Offers FREE Stores!

If you are looking for another venue to sell your products, you should check out Vendio!

We have been sidetracked since we found the Vendio FREE stores (sorry about not keeping the blog more current). We are building an awesome store and can't believe that it doesn't cost a thing.

They offer several different free templates that you can use to create your store. They even have downloadable instructions to create your own template. So, if you have no tech skills, you can still have a great store or if you have tech skills, you can manipulate your store to be whatever you envision.

Your images are stored - get this - for FREE! There are also special zoom picture effect included, depending on how you create your listing.

It is very easy to use but if you run into trouble, their support people are only an email away. It doesn't take days to get a response either.

You are able to import your eBay or Amazon listings with ease. The one thing that they don't mention or we didn't notice to be mentioned is that if you delete your imported items, you can not do a re-import of them. Make sure that you really want the items deleted before doing so or you will have to manually create them.

You can offer most any payment form that you would like to accept. They do have Google CheckOut and PayPal integrated into their shopping cart. Checks and money orders are also ok.

Vendio also includes instructions on creating your Google Base feed for those who self-host their store. We haven't created one for our Vendio store so we can't comment on how easy it is. They send feeds to Google Base for the stores hosted on their site so their sellers do not have to.

Another great plus is that you can also upload your Vendio store to your own website. Once again, this option is FREE. So, you can actually get 2 stores for FREE and only work on one to create the two. It doesn't get any better than that!

There are lots of shipping options that you can include in your store and they also offer calculated shipping. And guess what? That is also FREE!

Vendio also provides free inventory management and integrates with eBay and Amazon if you would like to take advantage of that feature. This allows you to manage, create listings, schedule listings to upload to eBay or Amazon and etc... (There is a small fee for integrating.)

These free stores are search engine optimized. That is worth a lot all by itself.

You can also offer coupons on your FREE Vendio store. We haven't tried it yet but it appears able to be done in just a couple of clicks.

We almost forgot to mention that Vendio also provides free gallery widgets that you can place on most any website to showcase your items. These widgets are customizable to match website backgrounds and can be set to scroll if you would like.

Vendio stores are also optimized for iPhone. How cool is that?!

And don't forget, this free store is yours to make your own selling rules. There is no one to dictate rules to you like in online marketplaces. Just like you always wanted, you are your own boss!

Vendio provides a store directory of all stores on the site. It is set up in alphabetical order.

There are also all kinds of options you can add to your store for a small fee which are also worth a look.

If you haven't checked out the free Vendio stores, you should. So far, we think they are fabulous!

eBay 33% Off Listing Fees Special

eBay is running a nice little special right now through October 11, 2009. If you run auctions on eBay, the site is giving a 33% discount on your listing fees. That is a welcomed change!

Items that usually cost 55¢ to list now cost 37¢, $1.00 listings are 67¢, $2.00 auction listings are $1.34 and so on. Final value fees are not discounted.

This special is available on www.ebay.com, www.ebay.ca and www.ebaymotors.com (Parts & Accessories only).

To qualify for the discount, sellers must have a 12-month Detailed Seller Rating of 4.5 or higher on all criteria.

All other fees apply, check eBay for details and restrictions.
Click here to read the announcement and details.