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Winners Circle
Possible eBay Regulation of Ohio Residents
NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Ohio residents selling goods on eBay would have to get a license and be bonded under a law set to go into effect May 2, although authors of the legislation vow to make changes before that date to exempt individuals.
The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported that the law, signed by Gov. Robert Taft on Feb. 1, was meant to insure that auctioneers were abiding by the established rules and regulations. The law, as written, requires Ohio residents who sell products online to get a state auction license.
Besides costing $200 and posting a $50,000 bond, the license requires a one-year apprenticeship to a licensed auctioneer, acting as a bid-caller in 12 auctions, attending an approved auction school, passing a written and oral exam. Failure to get a license could result in the seller being fined up to $1,000 and jailed for a maximum of 90 days.
The primary author of the legislation, State Sen. Larry Mumper, told the paper the legislature never intended it to apply to individuals selling items over eBay. But Mumper, while vowing changes, couldn't say exactly who would or would not be exempt from the license requirement under any changes in the pending law.
"It certainly will not apply to the casual seller on eBay, but might apply to anyone who sells a lot," he said. "If someone buys and sells on eBay on a regular basis as a type of business, then there is a need for regulation."
Kathy Greer, senior editor of UnRavel the Gavel, a newspaper covering the New England auction market, told the Plain Dealer that similar regulation efforts are under way in Tennessee and Illinois, but that past efforts have always either been withdrawn or left unenforced due to public outcry over the restrictions.
Hani Durzy, eBay spokesman, said the company has reviewed Ohio's law and is not concerned.
"We do not believe the law applies to people who sell items on eBay or to eBay itself," he told the paper.
CEO: `eBay is indeed the best job for me'
Here is the complete text of eBay Chief Executive Meg Whitman's e-mail to company employees explaining her decision to stay at the online auction company's helm:
Hello everyone:
You may have read news reports on the overture The Walt Disney Company made to me to be their CEO. I thought I'd take a moment to explain those reports.
A few weeks ago, the firm handling Disney's search contacted me to see if I would be interested in the Disney job. As some of you know, I worked at Disney earlier in my career, and I have a fond spot in my heart for the company. It's quite possibly the only other company I would ever think of running after eBay. So, I asked the recruiter for more information and agreed to meet with Disney's board a week ago. On Friday afternoon, I withdrew my name from consideration, because, in the end, I reaffirmed my belief that working at eBay is indeed the best job for me.
eBay is a marvelous company that has been extremely good to me. My past 7 years at eBay have been a fabulous adventure, both personally and professionally. I owe eBay, its community and all of you an awful lot. But perhaps even more important, I believe eBay has a remarkable future ahead of it. Everywhere I turn to look, whether it's our North American business, International, PayPal or New Ventures, I see tremendous opportunity. Great things remain to be done, and I very much want to be a part of that future.
Thank you very much for your understanding. And thank you for everything you do for eBay and our users every single day.
As always, I'd be happy to answer any questions you have. Please feel free to e-mail me.
Regards,
Meg
It's in the Mail
Going Postal The U.S. Postal Service forwarded a recommendation for a 5 to 6% rate increase to the Postal Board of Governors on Monday, said Postmaster General John E. Potter. The postmaster said the increase would be necessary unless there is a change made to a new law calling for the establishment of a $3.1 billion escrow account that affects the postal service's retirement system. Otherwise, the U.S.P.S would have been able to use that money for operating expenses and put off a postage rate increase until 2007, Potter said.
Credit Issuers Mailed a Record 5.2 Billion Pieces in 2004 U.S. households received roughly 68 credit card offers each in 2004, setting an overall record of 5.23 billion offers, according to the Mail Monitor direct mail tracking service Synovate, the market research arm of Aegis Group. The volume of credit card offers was 22% higher compared to 2003 and it exceeds the previous mail volume record of 5.01 billion offers set in 2001. The higher level of clutter has caused response rates to drop to an all time low of .4% in 2004, compared to .6% in 2003. Still the shear volume of mailings generates millions of applications each month. Direct mail remains the key response channel, although consumers are increasingly being encouraged to respond by telephone or the Internet, according to Davidson.
Survey Finds 37% of E-Commerce Revenues Come From Mail and the U.S. Postal Service, found that 67% of consumers consider mail more personal than the Internet. The study also quantified the synergy between mail and the Internet. It found that catalogs typically generate 22% of a company's Web site traffic and that direct mail generates 37% of e-commerce revenues. Consumers consider direct mail useful and are most likely to read it to browse for new purchases and for help managing a household or overseeing finances, according to the survey. Findings of the survey conducted by InnoMedia Inc. were released Monday, March 21.
Email: The average number of spam offers received by consumers on a weekly basis has declined to 78, compared to 137 per week one year ago, according to a survey conducted by Opinion Research Corp. on behalf of the DMA. In addition the percent of e-mail viewed as spam declined to 53.1% n February of this year, compared to 60.4 in February 2004. While the overall volume of spam is has been reduced, the higher volume of spam compared to legitimate e-mail continues to inhibit consumer trust and threaten e-commerce, according to Cerasale.
Your Marketing Efforts: If you sell items that are shipped to physical addresses, you have amassed a postal mailing list. There are ways you can help your winners and yourself by using this list. The most effective use of your list is to send your material along with the winner's order. Brainstorm the types of mailers or items you could do this with: flyers, surveys, business cards, coupons, thank you cards, magnets, promotional t-shirts, etc. Try vista print or cafepress for awesome and inexpensive ideas for your promotional materials.
Your second mailing list will include the email addresses you have collected through your dealings with winners. When is an email considered SPAM? When it is unsolicited. In other words, if you purchase a list of email addresses, make sure that the people on this list have opted to receive email from you. If you've ever signed up or registered with a credible company, they will often ask you if you'd like to receive offers from their affiliates, partners or like-minded companies. If you say yes, you have "opted" to receive extra junk mail from service providers you may have never heard of, even though the original company was a well established one. Always offer a way to your winners of opting-out of your regular mailers. And if you receive more than one complaint, you may have purchased a cold list, or a bad list from someone who simply collected names without permission.
The best practice on mailing out to your list, is to stick with your winners, or the people who have contacted you first, because they have already granted permisssion to receive more info directly from your business, and statistically they are more likely to buy again from a merchant they have already dealt with. Email campaigns can include the same type of promotions that physical snail-mail-outs contain, but it may take more creativity on your part to win them over.
So, what are you waiting for? Let's get rolling out on those campaigns.
Massive Internet Income with Lists
You know that the "money is in the list" right?
We've talked about this before. And you also probably know that building a list and actually making a profit from your email campaigns is probably the most common challenge that holds people back in their business.
I think that is going to be a thing of the past.
Craig Perrine, The List Profit Coach from Nitro Marketing, has just released his mega course that I swear goes into every question I had ever had about list building.
It's clear to me now why so many people struggle to build a list. There are three keys to making money with a list and until now I've never seen anyone actually explain everything in one place.
First you have to get subscribers. We all know that. Craig's List Profit Secrets course explains both no cost and paid list building methods that anyone can use.
He's got a unique system of taking a step by step approach that before you know it has you raking in targeted subscribers and setting them up to be highly responsive.
There are three techniques, one about using eBay, that are just mind blowing.
Craig's sure dug up the cutting edge info for this course.
And his guest speakers are like a who's who of Internet Masters.
Second, you really have to know how to manage and mail to your list. With all the hub bub about Spam and the ins and outs of autoresponders and all that, most people just suck it up and learn by trial and error.
I know I did.
But Craig reveals the 'best practices' that will keep your list clean and avoid problems, while managing your subscribers for maximum profit at the same time.
I was impressed. I've never heard a lot of this stuff anywhere before.
Third, and perhaps most important if you think about it...Craig teaches you how he profits from his lists. And by the way, this guy has built lists totaling 7 million opt in subscribers for himself, clients and customers -- so he knows what it takes to get you started on the right foot.
You know what, though? What I really appreciate is something many people won't even notice. Craig designed the course with a Quick Start Guide and made it an easy step by step process.
If you're like me, you probably have stuff on your shelves that you've bought and never made it all the way through.
Well, so does Craig :)
He made sure that you can listen to the CD's (there are 27 audios!) in your car...or on your computer.
And, he's got video tutorials and even a 308 page email swipe file chock full of his private examples that he uses to generate his famous emails.
He's even included a bunch of Nitro emails that I know for a fact have brought in multi-six figure returns.
All in one course.
That's good stuff. And the Master Manual has a step by step workbook style so literally, if you take the steps, you'll have subscribers and be on your way.
Brilliant.
This is a 'take action' course more than a 'home study' course.
I highly recommend you go here and check it out...
List Profit Secrets
If you are even half serious about building a list or you're not making a dime from the subscribers you have, I'd jump on this right away.
List Profit Secrets is fresh off the press and I would expect the first production to sell out fast.
So go see if this is for you today, right now or you'll probably have to wait a while.
It's at... List Profit Secrets
"The best free training I've ever seen online"
Dear Readers,
I'm posting this today because of the time sensitivity of this offer. Otherwise, it would be in with the member's freebies section of our site. The message below came to me from a trusted source, and is well worth your attention if you do any sort of email promotion for your online business.
"At first, it seemed they had made a mistake.
I was sitting there reading this special report called 'The Email Profit Code Revealed' and couldn't believe my eyes...
The report goes inside the private tactics of an email marketing genius.
It could be selling for big bucks.
You'll see what I mean when you read page17, and THEN page 18...and also page 5:
List Profit Secrets
If you can still get it at no cost at that link, then you are going to see:
1) How one email and a list of just 1279 subscribers brought in $13,979 in sales in 24-hours.
2) The 30-Point Checklist You MUST Use Before You Send An Email To Your List
3) The Step-by-Step Promotional Plan For a Successful Email Campaign
4) A Video Analysis and Breakdown of A Successful Email You Can Watch Right Now
5) 18 Tactics That Are Proven To Increase the Profitability of Your Emails
6) How To Get Started RIGHT If You've Never Gotten Started Building A List At All
7) The number one reason why the rich get richer and the broke stay broke.
And a whole lot more, too...
List Profit Secrets
Once you know the 'Big Results From Small Lists' info, it's going to change the way you look at making money online.
I still can't believe they aren't charging for this!"
Best Regards,
Bohemiattic
P.S.
Be sure and print off the 30 point email checklist inside this special report andkeep it right by your mouse - it's worth pure gold to you. Don't send another email without going through each point of this checklist:
List Profit Secrets
Effective Auction Listings - How To Create Them
By Gary HendricksonOnce you've created the best possible title for your item, you will move on to writing your auction description. Here, you have more space to give a detailed description of the item you are selling in the body of your auction. While the photo and title are what get a person interested in your auction and bringing them to your listing, it's your description that is going to have to induce them to actually bid on it.
The sole purpose of your description is to get people to place a bid by presenting them with an honest and factual description of what you are selling.
It has been shown that the chances are high that if a person doesn't place a bid the first time they view your auction, they won't come back and place one later. Furthermore, if you can get someone to bid on your auction early, this in itself will attract more possible buyers to your auction. There is an inherent curiosity when searching listings to see why someone has bid on a particular item, so auctions that already have bids stand out from those that don't. This brings even more potential bidders to your auctions.
When writing your auction description, you want to list every attribute that will make it sound as appealing as possible. However, you must also be careful to be as accurate as possible in your description. Details are extremely important.
The more detailed you can be about what you are selling, the better. Potential bidders want to know as much as possible about something before placing a bid on it.
Even things that may seem obvious should be included. Take a few minutes and ask yourself if you were considering buying the item you're listing, what details would you want to know about it? Your description should paint a picture of the item in the persons mind. Write your auction description as if your auction didn't have any photos attached to it.
If there is an imperfection or a flaw with the item, be honest and upfront about it. Ask yourself if you were the buyer and the seller left out the imperfection in the description, how would you feel when you received the item? By making your description as accurate as possible, stressing the attributes, but also giving all the details about any imperfections, you will greatly reduce the chance of having problems when the sale is completed. Your honesty will also quickly gain you a reputation for describing your items accurately.
Your descriptions are also another way of attracting buyers to your auctions. While the main way people search eBay is through the search engine that uses the item titles, they can also refine their search to include words or phrases found in auction descriptions. By writing a thorough longer description, you automatically create more words that in return increase the chances of your auction being included in someone's search criteria.
If there is a story that goes along with the item, include it. The buyer just has your photos and descriptions to make an informed decision with. The more flavor, detail and warmth you put into your listing, the more likely the person looking at your auction will be to bid on it.
Use adjectives freely and play on any unique attributes the item has. Take the time to create a description that will make the buyer feel completely comfortable with placing a bid if it is something that he or she is interested in.
Also be sure that you include all your after auction information in your description. Don't leave potential bidders in the dark concerning the shipping cost. List all shipping options and the cost of each. List the types of payments you accept. Include a definite date by which payment must be received. The clearer your instructions, the more comfortable the bidder will be and the less likely you will run into problems at the end of the transaction.
Naturally all the items you sell are going to be the same. However, there will be portions of your description that can remain the same for virtually every product you sell. Once you have created a description you like and seems to get people to bid, save it and make it your template for auctions.
Then simply change words and add extra information where needed. This will not only guarantee that each of your auctions will have a quality description, it will also allow you to list more auctions since you won't have to write a completely new description for every auction you list.
Selling on Ebay-Get Started in 7 Easy Steps
By Jennifer Parks
Ebay auctions are definitely the easiest and fastest way to start earning money online. Ebay.com gets over 1.5 billion page views every month-that means ebay takes care of the single biggest problem all internet business owners face-traffic.
With over 9,000 new users registering on ebay every day there’s not likely to be a slow down to your business-if you know how to get started. Follow these easy steps to put you on the road to online profits today.
#1: Get an Ebay.com Selling Account, it’s free and easy.
#2: Decide what you’re going to sell. For starters it’s a good idea to look around your garage or attic, or that closet full of baby clothes that your little one has out grown.
Baby clothes sell very well on ebay.com-just do a search at ebay.com for “baby clothes” then look at the completed listings for an idea of what sells. Also note the starting bid and shipping costs.
To make a full time business from ebay.com auctions you’ll want to expand, but this is a great way to “get the feel” for what sells and how to place a listing.
#3: Take pictures. The old saying “a picture is worth a thousand words” has never been more true or more important than it will be to your auction. Without a picture It’s very unlikely your auction will get any bids.
Use a digital camera or scan pictures into your computer. You can upload a free picture for each listing. For any more pictures you’ll have to pay Ebay.com a few cents to “host” your pictures, or you can have your pictures hosted at a picture hosting website for a small fee.
#4: Making your listing. This is one of the most important steps of your auction. Log into your account at Ebay.com and it is pretty simple to follow the directions. If you make a mistake in your listing it is possible to go back and edit the listing after you’ve submitted all the information.
Using html to enhance your listing shows the buyer that you take their bid serious. It can increase the number of bids on your auction. Be sure to research similar auctions and notice when they started and ended. Try to list your auction close to the same times for best results.
Take note of the starting bids in similar auctions as well. Usually people come to ebay.com to find a good deal, so start the bid at a comparable price.
#5: Answering bidder’s questions. Sometimes the potential bidder will have a question to ask the seller. Ebay.com has made this very easy. The Bidder posts their question and ebay.com sends an email message to the seller without disclosing your email address to the bidder.
Answering these questions as soon as possible is important to the response of your bidding. Remember this is a potential buyer who has done a search for your item at ebay.com. Their intent is to buy the type of item you are selling. Treat them like a paying customer.
#6: Accepting Payment. There are several ways to receive payment from the bidder after the auction ends. One of the most popular ways is by accepting credit cards through PapPal.com. It is free to set up an account and there are no set up fees for accepting payment.
The seller could also send you a check or if you prefer not to wait until the check clears you could ask that they send a money order instead. State in your auction description how soon you accept to receive payment after the auction ends.
#7: Shipping. Ebay.com has made it easy when you make your listing to put a “shipping calculator” on your auction. All the bidder has to do is enter their zip code within the U.S. and the calculator will give them a shipping price for shipping through U.S.P.S. Or you can state a specific shipping price in your auction description.
Package your items carefully and be sure to put a return address on the box. Also include a note requesting feed back for the transaction.
There are several ways to increase the bid amount on individual auctions, as well as find things to sell as a long term income stream for further auctions.
Jennifer Parks is the author of Selling-on-Ebay-Now.blogspot.com with free information, software, resources, and secrets for selling on ebay.
Article Source: http://EzineArticles.com/
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