We are now hiring for our Account Manager job. Click the link to read the whole job description. Here are the highlights.
The As Was Account Manager takes the approved designs that we do, and works directly with our clients to install them. So you'd get policies and links into templates, and get them into the client's listing software. We can teach you the various listing software systems if you don't know all of them (and who does!). You'd create and install our "simple" eBay Store designs based on the approved template design. You'd create and install About Me pages and custom eBay Store pages.
Clients often ask for things that are bad ideas based on what we know about how eBay shoppers behave. You need to be able to comfortably tell someone that you suggest they NOT do that, and why. We're not grunt workers. We're consultants, and part of why people want to work with us is our great and logical advice. :)
This job requires expert-level Photoshop, HTML, and CSS skills. If you have taken a course on HTML, that may not be enough. We do very complicated coding, and we always do it by hand. You cannot get away with having Dreamweaver or Word code this for you.
And we'd like you to know eBay well! Our Account Managers sometimes get questions about a client's eBay selling, and we'd prefer if you had some answers. Sure, we can give you some training on how we like the questions answered, but we do not expect to have to teach you eBay!
So if you have great website skills, great client communication skills, and know eBay, we need you right now! You can work from home as long as you have a good, quiet place, and nobody else will answer the phone line we'd set up for you. Pay is hourly, and you'll be 1099'ed.
Please get in touch ASAP. The job is open right now, and we need to hire right now, even with this being the holiday season. I'm not going on vacation. I'll be right here working on hiring!
Thanks, and please pass this on so we can reach people with this skill set who may be looking for full-time or nearly full-time work-from-home work.
Men, I'm here to help. It looks like you guys didn't notice that a PROFILE was your chance for me to preliminarily get to know you. I am reading profile after profile of "I'm a good listener," and "My friends are important to me," and "I'm really funny." But don't worry, I'm here to help.
Tell me details of what you like. You like music! Me too. What are your favourite bands and types of music? If you love death metal and gangsta rap, we're not a match. You like comedy! Me too. Who are your favourite comedians? If it's Dane Cook and Lisa Lampanelli, we're not really a match.
You're funny? Don't TELL me you're funny. Be your naturally funny self, and I'll see if you're funny. If you don't write anything funny, my impression of you will be "not funny."
You're passionate? About WHAT. Is your job your passion? Which of your hobbies is your passion? What do you love SO MUCH that when you do it, you lose track of time? That's your passion, and that's what I want to hear about.
Tell me up front if you have kids or want kids. If you marked yourself as not wanting kids and your profile says you think you may want kids, not only do I wonder if we match, but I wonder if you have self-awareness, especially since you can mark yourself as "not sure" if you want kids. I'm looking for someone who doesn't have kids, so let me know early on if you have kids!
If "athletic and toned" is not what you are, please don't mark it as your body type. If I meet you in real life, I will use the information my eyes pass to my brain rather than holding on to what you checked off in your dating site profile.
Give me an idea of things you like to do. When a dating site asks you what you do in your spare time, "reading, walking, talking, eating," (real, total answer from a profile I read) doesn't help me get to know you. Your profile is supposed to make me excited to get to know you.
Spelling and grammar. Freinds? Not knowing your from you're? How about "instant message speak" like the guy who wrote, "things r important." If you look not so
bright, I'm unlikely to want to connect with you. I require bright.
Do NOT write about what sort of lover you are. Maybe it's just a woman thing, but I'm a different lover with each person I've been with since the sex and connection were different with each person. The more you write about sex, the more I think that's what you're mostly looking for (and maybe you are). But this is a dating website. I'm trying to get to know you. If the relationship gets there, I'll know what kind of lover you are, and what you SAID you are won't matter at all. If you're not cuddly or affectionate, it won't matter that you said you were in your dating profile.
Do not write about money. I don't want to hear how financially wonderful you are. It almost sounds defensive. I don't want to hear how happy you are that you finally found a job. It makes me wonder how stable and employable you are.
Slow down. A guy on a dating site asked me if I would relocate for a relationship (no). In a later communication, he started writing about which possible jobs he could get if he moved to where I live. Dude, I don't even know who your favourite band is. I think it's a bit early to think about which of us is relocating to live with the other.
I'm not here to hook up and find random sex. One thing men forget is that a single and available woman, even an ugly and annoying woman, can usually find at least one guy (each night) that would have sex with her. I don't need to sign on to a dating website so that I can have dirty Yahoo IM chats with you. I don't need a dating site to find people to hook up with. I'm there to find people with things in common, and start by making friends. Stop using dating sites to find people who want IM sex chat or random hook ups. You can easily find sex chat anywhere, and if you want a hook up, go sit in a bar. At least you'll see her first.
Or then again, go ahead and write all the things I'm telling you not to! You make it very clear that I need to stay away. I just hope I'm not missing somebody really great because he wrote nothing about himself. Then again, the right guy will write what I want to know!
Good luck, guys. With profiles like this, some of you need some help! Exactly what does this tell me about this guy? What here would make me excited to meet him?
We are now hiring for our Account Manager job. Click the link to read the whole job description. Here are the highlights.
The As Was Account Manager takes the approved designs that we do, and works directly with our clients to install them. So you'd get policies and links into templates, and get them into the client's listing software. We can teach you the various listing software systems if you don't know all of them (and who does!). You'd create and install our "simple" eBay Store designs based on the approved template design. You'd create and install About Me pages and custom eBay Store pages.
Clients often ask for things that are bad ideas based on what we know about how eBay shoppers behave. You need to be able to comfortably tell someone that you suggest they NOT do that, and why. We're not grunt workers. We're consultants, and part of why people want to work with us is our great and logical advice. :)
This job requires expert-level Photoshop, HTML, and CSS skills. If you have taken a course on HTML, that may not be enough. We do very complicated coding, and we always do it by hand. You cannot get away with having Dreamweaver or Word code this for you.
And we'd like you to know eBay well! Our Account Managers sometimes get questions about a client's eBay selling, and we'd prefer if you had some answers. Sure, we can give you some training on how we like the questions answered, but we do not expect to have to teach you eBay!
So if you have great website skills, great client communication skills, and know eBay, we need you right now! You can work from home as long as you have a good, quiet place, and nobody else will answer the phone line we'd set up for you. Pay is hourly, and you'll be 1099'ed.
Please get in touch ASAP. The job is open right now, and we need to hire right now, even with this being the holiday season. I'm not going on vacation. I'll be right here working on hiring!
Thanks, and please pass this on so we can reach people with this skill set who may be looking for full-time or nearly full-time work-from-home work.
Yeah, I'm moving back to Tucson. Say what? What's with Deb moving around so much? Well, first of all, I can. I own my businesses, I work for me, I work from home, and I'm single with a dog and cat. The cat is really cool about the car, and the dog knows, "New house." That means no kids to pull out of school or away from friends. So I can live wherever I like, whenever I like, and why not. Do it while you can, I say.
All my phone numbers will still work... no matter what area code and number you're dialing, it'll ring at my desk.
In March 2005, I finally escaped suburban New York to the promised land of Tucson. Yeah, Tucson is really that great. It's everything I wanted... beautiful, friendly, slow-moving, insanely low cost of living, great weather year-round, safer (well the part of town I live in), and populated enough that you can get most of your major stores (1 million people living over 900 square miles). I wanted the opposite of NYC and suburbs, and I sure got it.
It's the first place in my life that has ever felt like home. Where I grew up is not home. My parents' house is not home. Tucson is home, and I'm excited to go back. Most of my best friends are there, and I'm hoping that'll inspire me to stop working 100 hrs/week, and get out a bit more.
Tucson is home to some of the best spas and rehab centres in the country. You might laugh at that sentence, but the reality is that Tucson is a great place to change your life. It's inspiring. It changed mine for the better many times, and that's why I want to stay.
San Jose has been great. The Bay Area is lovely. Can't really say a bad word about it other than I'm not really a city girl, and never quite got back into the swing of how long it takes to drive somewhere "with traffic." We kinda don't get that in Tucson. Cost of living isn't great, but the trade-off is that there's plenty to do here, and the quality of life can be good.
San Jose also gave me some time to "be alone" to redefine my businesses, focus on those, and also grieve for a bad relationship that ended badly (and won't quite go away, but it'll have closure soon enough). I needed space to think about what went wrong and what I really want, and I've been able to make some great changes to some of my bad patterns.
Incredibly good things started happening to me basically from the minute I got to San Jose. I don't really think it was being "here," I think it was just being away from the life I'd been living, but also being in a nice place that supported what I do.
I will save roughly $1000/month living in one of the nicest luxury apartment communities in Tucson, and while the economy is still crappy, I think it's important to save that. So I get to live in paradise surrounded by the friends that have become my family, and save money doing it. Check, please!
My official moving day is in mid-November, and I can't wait. I'm coming home, and I know that I will be so happy that I will be able to take the great things that started happening to me as soon as I got to San Jose, and explode them exponentially. Thanks to everybody for your support.
I went into a local Greek place last week to order lunch to take home. It was after the lunch rush. Two tables had patrons, there was nobody behind the counter, and I didn't see a waitress.
I walked up to the counter, and a girl offered to take my order. I gave her my order. She got a guy out from the back, and had him put the order in.
I then noticed she didn't have an apron or anything, and asked if she really worked there. She said yes, but her shift just ended.
So she could have let me wait. Or she could have asked somebody to come deal with me. But she took my order. I found out her name is Nicole.
I watched her tell the guy behind that counter that a certain table was still waiting for his check. The guy printed out the check. She put it in the sleeve, and dropped it off at his table.
Another waitress then came out from the back.
You want all your staff to be like Nicole. She cared. She took action when she could have passed it off or waited for someone else. She could have walked to the back to ignore me. After all, her shift was over.
There are good staff out there. Even waitresses. :) You can find them, and then you should treat them well and reward them.
Yesterday was NOT a cool day for my Palm Pre. After taking a small tumble, the case wasn't cracked, but was no longer sitting correctly. It couldn't be snapped back in. Man, my HTC WinMo phones took many more WAY worse falls, and lived. So I am a bit concerned on construction here.
But I did something weird for me, and I took insurance on the phone when I got it. So I went to the Sprint Store. Showed it to the girl, who went, "OOooooo!" Like ooo, this is bad. I had called that morning, and she said to backup my pictures and any music I've put on the phone. I did. I also hit the "backup" button the phone has, though I didn't know what it did.
I went to Starbucks and got my usual. By the time I walked back, she was just about done reprogramming a brand new phone. Not worth them trying to fix, I guess. Brand new phone. The phone asked for my Palm account. Well, I didn't really know what that was for. I only knew I was creating one when I first got the phone. But having NOT downloaded the desktop software, I didn't know what having the Palm account really did.
So I log back into my account on the new phone, and it says it's downloading. Minutes go by, and then it reboots. When it's back, it's just amazing.
What's there:
All of my email settings... I had put in 5 email addresses, and it started sync'ing those accounts, and downloading my mail.
My Google account to sync my contacts and calendar, which it started doing.
All the apps I had downloaded.
So within minutes, I had all of my contacts, calendar, and emails freshly sync'ed. It was NICE.
What's not there:
My desktop wallpaper. Easy to reload and assign.
Preferences for ring tones, both the main one, and ones I had set for contacts.
Settings inside the apps I had downloaded. For example, my Twitter app was there, but it didn't know any of my accounts.
I'm hoping that future apps can have some sort of import/export settings so I don't need to redo all my settings if I ever have to factory reset.
But this was impressive and a welcome relief when I think about what it was like after factory resetting my Windows Mobile phones. Note that the Palm automatically syncs with Google accounts... so I have an app sending my Outlook contacts and calendar to Google every 15 minutes (and receiving anything my phone has sent). The Palm syncs periodically, so both are always updated. That's niiiiiiiice. :)
Thanks, Palm. I started out nearly hating you, and ended up converted again. :)
Following my post last week about Google Voice, I was poking around the forums, and got a great idea from people there on saving lots of money with Google Voice.
I will probably take and make calls through Google Voice from my mobile phone. But I was worried about it burning up my allotted minutes. Well, the folks in the forum had a solution, and I'm going to try it.
Many carriers have some sort of "friends and family" plan or add-on where you can pick a few phone numbers that are outside of your carrier's network, and you will ALWAYS get free calls to and from those numbers. For example, if you call home a lot, you might want those to not count against your minutes.
Well, you add your Google Voice number as one of those! That way, when you call GV to access your voicemail or make outgoing calls, it won't count against your minutes.
What about receiving calls? GV has a feature where the call can show up as your GV number every time OR it can show up as the caller ID of the person calling. I'm setting it to show up as my GV number... and in that case, my carrier should see it as my "friend number" calling, and not dock my minutes.
Play your GV cards right, and you could barely pay for calls ever again!
The next thing that would save me heaps of money would be if GV let us have multiple numbers that we controlled from one account. Sure I can start separate accounts, but it's always easier to control things from one account. If I had multiple GV numbers, here is the problem that would solve.
Right now, I have 4 phone lines. One is my mobile and three are my businesses (As Was, We Are Your People, and inkFrog). When you call one, you expect me to pick that up and say the right company! :) But if you call through Google Voice, and I don't know who you are or why you're calling, then I might not say the right company.
If I had multiple numbers, then I could set GV to show that GV number as my caller ID. Ring the "As Was" number, and I know to answer with "As Was." Ring the "We Are Your People" number, and I know to answer that way. I could then have ONE phone line (instead of three) because I would know who you were trying to reach, and GV would always take voicemail... with a customised outgoing message for each number.
Well, it finally came... my Google Voice invitation. I decided to check it all out. The interface looks like Gmail, so it should be familiar to many people.
The first step was picking my phone number, and it posed an interesting question... what's more important? An area code you like or your phone number spelling something? I decided that since I tend to move a lot and am not in one area code for long, I would pick a phone number that spelled something nobody can forget. :) The upside? You will probably never forget my number. The down side? I show up on caller ID as calling from Canton, Ohio. OH well.
The next step I took was importing my Outlook contacts. It remembered my categories, and used those as Groups. You can make settings for groups. For example, a group can get a special voicemail outgoing message. And a group can be routed to some of your phone numbers. Or a group can go straight to voicemail. So this means I can have one outgoing message for friends, one for certain business associates, etc...
And my most important peeps can be sent to ring my office and cell phone AT THE SAME TIME... or regular peeps can just ring the office, and I don't have to take it on my cell phone. You can also set temporary numbers (like your mountain cabin, as the help file says) in case you want calls to find you there.
Not sure if you want to take a call from someone? When they call your number, Google Voice calls you, and announces who they are. You then have a pile of choices... take the call, send it to voicemail, send it to voicemail but listen in on the voicemail (and hit a button to interrupt and start talking to the person leaving a voicemail), or record the call.
Yes. Record the call. I think it said it will announce something saying it's recording. I haven't tried that.
Want your calls to look like they come from your number? Two ways to do that. One is to dial your own number (say from your mobile), and then instruct the system to call out. The other is to be on the Google Voice website, and initiate the call from there. You say who to call or what number, and what phone you want to use. It'll call you first, and once you connect, it calls your intended party with your Google Voice number showing up on caller ID.
If you initiate calls from Google Voice, you might get charged. Right now, calls from the US to the 48 continental states are free. Calls to landlines in other countries are pretty comparable to rates I've seen from other services... $0.02/min to the UK, $0.03/min to Australia, $0.01/min to Canada. Calls to mobile phones are always more. But hey, if I'm out on my mobile phone somewhere, it'll cost me less to call through Google Voice than to pay Sprint's fees to make international calls. Google Voice gives you 10 cents free to play around (well, I got 10 cents!).
Text messaging was very cool. Google Voice understands which of my phones is my mobile phone. If you text my Google Voice number, it comes to me as coming from Google Voice. If I reply, it goes through Google Voice back to you. That means that if I go to the SMS dashboard on the Google Voice website, I will see our texts as a threaded conversation. I can send SMS or reply to them right there. That was pretty neat. My cell phone number never showed up in any of it.
Some features I haven't tried out.
If you have received a call on one phone, and you want to switch to another phone, you can evidently hit *. Your other phones will ring, and you can pick up the call where you want. Sounds neat!
It evidently transcribes voicemails... didn't try that yet. They will be in your Google Voice inbox, and you can have them emailed to you. I love that from Vonage, so I'm sure I'd like that here.
It's integrated with GOOG411 when you call into your own number.
One of the types of phone numbers you can put in is Gizmo, which seems to be a Skype competitor. Sure, you can put in a Skype number, and just label that as work or home.
I've had it a few hours and have given nobody the number. :) So I'm not totally testing it. I'm afraid of giving out a phone number I'm not sure if I'll really keep and use. But I do like the idea of a business card with ONE phone number on it... call me, and I'll get it in the office, mobile, somewhere else, or on voicemail. And it could be my phone number for LIFE. That is attractive.
I'd love to keep testing this, but am afraid to give out my number! I'll have to give another review once I'm using this more. :)
A friend just called, and was thinking of coming up to see me for the weekend. This weekend. He lives in San Diego, and I'm now in San Jose.
We started looking around for flights, and he found Allegiant Air. They didn't have any flights up to me on Friday, but that had one up to me on Thursday (in 3 days). He can't make that since he doesn't want to take off of work.
But the price of the one-way flight to see me was $9. That's it. I assume they'll put tax on that, and charge for people checking bags. $9.
His return flight? $19. I mean this is just STUPID.
It doesn't fly in and out of San Jose. They fly in and out of Monterey, California, which is about 73 miles south of me. Yeah I'd go pick him up! But holy cats, I am definitely going to check their schedules next time I want to fly!
I am working on another move, and I called United Van Lines. Why? In Sept 2007, they moved my Grandmother's antique dining room set from NY to AZ. They did a WONDERFUL job. So I think of them when I am moving.
Today, I contacted my local United mover here in the Boston area. We had no idea what my Grandmother's furniture weighed, and he suggested calling the company that moved it last time.
So I called Liberty in Suffolk County, NY, and got the comptroller. This super nice guy took time out of his day to go back nearly two years and look up what the weight was. It wasn't in his computer, and he had to pull out old paper faxes of the weight of the truck. He said the fax was very hard to read, so the weight was either 460 or 660 pounds.
This was HUGELY helpful.
He then asked if I had anybody for my next move. I told him I was talking to my local United guy. He then told me that I could have started with him. They could have arranged the move, and then connected me with the local guy. I assume the make money on that, and hey, maybe he should. He was really nice, and gave me great service when he didn't have to.
So now we all know. If you were happy with a moving company, even if you are not moving from or to that area, you can call them and start with them. They probably make money from arranging it, and what better way to thank a company you like than to give them more business. :)
I've done the math. Disney Extra Value Resorts at Walt Disney World, Florida used to run around $80/night with tax. 30 nights of that would be $2400/month. That's not far from the rent I pay now! I know people paying more than that in rent.
And they'll clean my room every day!
Disney's dining plan... 2 full meals and one snack each day for $40/day. That's $1200/month. OK, that's more than I spend now on food, but hey, I can eat anything in any Disney restaurant any time. That's neato. :)
And for a few hundred, I can have an unlimited park pass as a FL resident. :)
I can save even more money by moving into the local Comfort Inn. I can have my room cleaned every day! And the room seems to run around $40/night after tax. Hey, that's $1200/mo, which is like half the rent I'm paying now.
eBay knows us, so I think that'll be enough for them to figure out who you mean!
I feel that we should win the awards for the following categories for the following reasons:
DSR Rockstar (improving customer service & buyer experience) - Our templates and eBay Stores as well as our strategy help and advice improve sellers' customer service, and definitely improve the shopping and buying experience. Our clients typically see their DSRs raise or stay high after working with us. Just using a piece of software for shipping or answering questions doesn't guarantee that anybody's DSRs will go up, but stick with us, and we'll get you there. :)
Most Innovative - That's definitely us! Have you seen anything like our templates? If so, it's because they are copying the original. We are definitely the company to think of when you want a design that is custom, unique, innovative, and will really connect with your target audience. Considering our first eBay client was in early 2001, we wrote the book on eBay design and eBay consulting!
Rapid Evolution (boosting seller efficiency in a dynamic marketplace) - Yes, that's us again! Even in a changing marketplace and down economy, many of our clients are still seeing increases in sales and improvements in their businesses. As we finish many projects within 2 months of someone hiring us, we are quickly able to create dramatic changes in eBay businesses. And considering that many clients report sales going up while pre-sales questions and fees go down, we are definitely improving seller efficiency.
Early Adopter - Well, this could be us, but I think this category is really designed for the software company that best keeps up with eBay changes. So nominate your favourite eBay software tool for this one!
So please take a moment to email eBay (as per their blog post) and nominate us for one or more categories! Tell them why we deserve to get awards for helping eBay sellers.
Last week, a client called me. He seemed nervous about his business. He was ready to grow and to be more efficient, but wasn't too sure about the big picture or all the little pictures that make up the big picture. He said that if there were an eBay Live event, he'd want to meet with me. But without that event, he wasn't sure how we'd get together.
Long story short, he invited me to fly to where he is. He covered my expenses, and I gave him a well-discounted rate for my personal time. Who am I? Well, if you don't know me, here's my website about me as a public speaker and consultant. Your might also know me as Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was. :)
So on Thursday 16 April, I bought tickets to fly to him on Saturday 18 April. I stayed through the evening of Monday 20 April. We got an incredible amount done, from planning the big picture, working on changing how his listings would look, fixing a few things in the eBay listing template we had made for him, and training his wife on some HTML and Photoshop so she can help him out.
It was fantastically productive, and it was great to connect with such nice people with a good business model. My client is a bit quirky, so when I asked him to summarise the adventure for my blog, here is what he sent:
With the giant-headed intellect of an alien the smiling, caring, helpful
Debbie Levitt, As Was Founder and CEO, came in for a landing at my humble
abode, and my eCommerce business and family were enriched spiritually and
financially. Debbie is an extraordinary talent and wonderful human being
to boot. An on-site visit at my home over a work/fun-filled weekend will
be paying big dividends going forward. I highly recommend this type of
interaction for any of Debbie’s clients or soon to be clients. It was
positively awesome.
I wanted to let people know that I'm available to travel to you, wherever you are, and stay as many days as we need to get you the help you need. You don't have to be an As Was client for me to come and consult on-site for you. And I'm not an alien. :)
If you'd like to get a quote on me travelling to you, please turn the following into an email address, and email me.
deb AAAAAAAAAAT debbie levitt DOOOOOOOOOOOT commmmmmmmm. Trying to avoid spam. :)
Some of you know my current hobby is trying to improve eBay usability. I want to see View Item pages that make shoppers trust buyers, leave shoppers with no doubts or questions, show them the info they need to know without them having to hunt for it, and make the sale!
I previously toyed with putting more details at the top rather than hiding them at the bottom or behind tabs. This time, I decided to do something really innovative to try to make shopping on eBay easier.
My idea this time is to have a bar at the bottom that carries the most important info so that:
People don't miss it.
Bidding/Buying It Now is never too far away. People hate scrolling. :)
Click this for a real page you can scroll around and experience:
The "bar" at the bottom stays there the whole time, even as people scroll. I can link things in there to different parts of the page. I linked the seller's name to her feedback and DSR record from her feedback page. It'll pop up right on that screen so you don't have to leave the shopping experience to check her out. :)
You might disagree with what info I've put, what colours I used, or how I laid it out... but that's why this is a mockup, a wireframe, an idea. In theory, I'd have a team of people at eBay who'd bounce the idea around, and we'd make it much better. Then we'd test it on focus groups, and test it more, and test it against other things. Then, we might let it run on the site a bit to see if it's more likely to make this item sell, how quickly, and for an auction, for a higher price.
So if eBay does something like this, I'll be taking credit for it since I haven't seen any wireframes or mockups offering this type of concept before mine. I also have piles of ideas for how a technique like this could be used around different eBay pages. Imagine if something like this reminded people to pay for something they won when 2 days have gone by, and they didn't pay yet. Imagine what we can PUSH to people as they move around the site to make using the site easier, faster, more obvious, and better for buyers and sellers.
What do you think of an idea like this? Do you think it would help shoppers and drive sales? How can it be improved? Thanks. :)
I blogged about this some weeks ago, and it's just dropped into my mailbox again as a reminder. So I'm reminding you. :)
I get the "thought of the day" email from Abraham-Hicks.com. You may or may not believe in that stuff or "The Secret," but I think some good ideas come out of it. Power of positive thinking!
Here is a thought of the day I got recently, which reminded me of that blog post:
A
bunch of weak people, even in numbers, aren't strong. Get a whole bunch of
confused people together and see how much clarity comes out of it. In other
words, you just can't add one more confused person to the pot, and expect to
get any more clarity… One—standing outside of the confused group—who is clear,
is more powerful than a million who are confused.
Excerpted from the
workshop in Albuquerque, NM on Wednesday, September 1st, 2004
I think that says plenty, but just to give you my take on it... a group of businesses coming together to try to grow their business are probably thinking about business not being that great. Someone whose business is really on fire probably doesn't have time for that meeting, and may even think it's a room full of not-like-minded people.
There is wanting something and there is doing and being something. Do it and be it! Doing it and being it would be the fastest ways to have what you want. :)
I'm thinking about getting a 50cc moped, scooter, baby motorcycle in training, whatever you want to call it. I do a lot of local driving, and my car is a 2007 Toyota 4Runner. In this city, this car is gigantic, and it getting shamefully low gas mileage. Back home in Tucson, I was getting nearly 24mpg driving around town. Here, I seem to be lucky if my 4Runner gets 14mpg. :( Plus, here in Boston, you have tiny one-way streets that are really tight for the 4Runner. I can't even get up and down my own driveway because it's too narrow.
I'm wondering what I can save on parking, gas, and car maintenance if I did my "easy" local driving on a 50cc moped. Clearly, my husband can't take it to band rehearsal since where would he put his guitar. And we can't take it out for a giant Costco shopping or any of our famous road trips. It won't be allowed on the freeway, so it'll be for mostly local driving. But we can get a lot of use out of it 8 or 9 months out of the year, I'd think.
The math!
My car gets 14mpg, and the Piaggio Fly 50 I'm considering gets 110mpg. My car can take regular gas, but I think premium gas is suggested for the moped. So let's do the math with those assumptions. The Fly 50 can take 400 pounds of rider weight, so my husband and I can ride together. It's a 4-stroke, so it doesn't sound like a lawnmower. It's relatively quiet.
100 miles in the car will take 7.14 gallons. At $1.90/gal, that's $13.57. The Fly would need 0.91 gallons. At a 91 octane price of say $2.26/gal, that would be $2.06. So I'm saving $11.51 at current gas prices for every 100 miles I can take the scooter. I don't go 100 miles a day... so maybe I'm saving $40/month.
Parking STINKS in the big city. I am plunking quarters into meters like mad, and a few times, we've been stuck parking in a garage for like $20 because we couldn't find street parking where we were. So let's say I'm saving $40 per month on parking.
Oh we also save on public transport. Waiting for the bus where we live SUCKS. If I'm only trying to go 2 miles, it can take what feels like an hour between walking to the bus stop, waiting for the bus, sitting through every stop, and finally getting to where I wanted to go. Or let's say we wanted to go for lunch to Faneuil Hall / Quincy Market. We have to wait for the bus. Take it to the orange T line. Change lines to the green T. Get off at Government Center, and walk a few blocks. It's 3 miles from my front door, and it can take over an hour each way.
So I might just jump on the scooter rather than all that waiting and changing buses and trains. Every round trip bus ride costs me $3.40. So maybe between me and my husband, we take the bus 10 fewer times a month. That saves $34/month, though I'd love to calculate the savings of my time based on what I bill in an hour! Each round trip might put 1.5 hrs back into my life.
Wear, tear, maintenance? Well, the Boston roads will do a number on any car. But if I'm driving the scooter more, then my scheduled car maintenance every 5,000 miles will come less frequently. With a $250 service looming for my car, spreading these out more does sound nice. But it's not necessarily savings as the cost didn't go away... it'll just be delayed.
You also have the enjoyment of riding a scooter. It just might be fun. We might go out more. I do dread going out sometimes since I'm sure we won't be able to park cheaply or find a spot. You can evidently park a 50cc moped anywhere on the sidewalk where it's out of people's way. Enjoyment and getting out more mean something but are hard to measure when doing financial calculations.
Also hard to calculate is the environmental impact. The scooter does take petrol, but probably pollutes way less than a V6 4Runner.
So we'll stick to straight math. Let's say that using our scooter would save $114/month on gas, public transport, and parking. The scooter might cost around $3000 when all is said and done. We'd have to use it for 27 months for it to pay for itself. If we can use it 8 months a year, that's about 3 years of scooting.
The math on this may be like doing the math on a hybrid car. The hybrids currently cost so much more, and the gas savings will depend on how you drive it. When I was in Chicago last month, a cabbie was driving a Prius. I asked what kind of gas mileage he saw with it, and he said around 37. That's NOT that great... but you will spend $10K more on the Prius (than a Yaris). If you got 10 mpg more with the Prius, that may take months or years to "pay for itself."
Back to the scooter. From what I'm hearing, this is a great price on this moped. With gas prices not at $4/gallon, the scooter prices have dropped since demand has dropped. Prices may also go up when it gets warmer, and people are thinking about scooters. So I think this is probably a good idea at a good time.
How can you save money on driving, and save your time too without killing the environment?
This is NOT an April Fools post. I'm serious about this!
I suggest things to eBay all the time, sometimes in my blog and sometimes privately, behind the scenes. We know from Scot Wingo's blog and statements that he's probably doing the same thing. I would imagine other Certified Providers are trying to give eBay suggestions. Yet most of us know different people at eBay, which means we might be telling the same ideas to 10 different eBay staffers, who never compare notes, and might write off an idea as just one person's idea.
I also thought about how many times I've been right. Not to toot my horn, but things I've put in my blog or told eBay staffers behind the scenes would or would not work have nearly always turned out to be true. I'd imagine other high-up people at the eBay Certified Provider third party companies are thinking the same thing... they're thinking, "Hey. An idea I gave eBay (or put in my blog) that they didn't listen to turned out to be right!"
2008 and 2009 have been great for one thing: eBay is talking more to the top third party providers. They want to know what we think of some of their moves and ideas. They want to know how they affect our users and clients. We're getting more advanced notice. These are all GREAT, and I'm very glad that eBay is connecting more with the Certified Providers and a few other top developers.
Here is what I'm wondering today. Chances are, most of the third party CEOs will soon find themselves at the same event. Maybe we'll all be at Internet Retailer. Maybe we'll all be at eBay's Developer Conference. With DevCon attracting more programmers, it's more likely to be Internet Retailer in Boston in mid-June.
What if all the CEOs and any other really relevant top people at the Certified Providers got together in a closed-room discussion. What if we put our heads together about what eBay should be focusing on and changing based on what we see going on with eCommerce and sellers. Many of us are talking to the media, analysts, and investors. People are listening to us, and want to know what we think.
What if we presented a proper paper to eBay, not to bully them, but to say HEY... this is what companies representing hundreds of thousands of sellers and billions of dollars of eBay transactions think should be changing... this is what is broken, this is how we'd fix it, and here are some negative things that rippled out of things eBay did (when they may not have realised what would ripple out).
When it comes from just me, you can pass it off as what Debbie wants for As Was or As Was clients. But if the paper were co-authored and signed by the CEOs or top people from ChannelAdvisor, Infopia, Kyozou, Vendio, Inkfrog, Auctiva, As Was, What Do I Sell, ShipRush, Mercent, JDT Technologies, Channel Velocity, Monsoon, ShipWorks, Terapeak, and the like, would eBay take that more seriously?
If eBay is listening to PESA as a representation of PowerSellers, and eBay is listening to Voices as a representation of buyers and sellers, I'd
think eBay might want to listen to a unified (or nearly-unified :) ) bunch of suggestions from
the third party companies. We just might have some good ideas.
We're the companies out there dealing directly with sellers' triumphs and struggles. When eBay sellers are failing, that ripples out to our companies, and that ripples back to eBay. We see the causes and effects in short periods and over long arcs. Think about how many eBay Certified Providers have had the same CEO or management for the last 3 yrs, 5 yrs, maybe even 10 years. We have been in these trenches a LONG time... longer than some eBay staff are in their jobs or assigned to a certain project. We have a really unique point of view on things.
We're all invested in eBay sellers doing better... being stronger, being more viable, being more profitable, keeping their businesses open, selling more, shipping more. Anything we can come up with as a team can only be win-win-win-win-win
I invite all the top people to get together when we're all in Boston for Internet Retailer. Let's make time for this. Not April Fools. Totally serious. We should put together formal suggestions that most or all of us agree on. Maybe that would be taken more seriously. eBay sellers, send this blog post to the high-ups at the third party companies you use. Let's have an eBay Certified Provider Summit, and let's really put our heads together.
The meaning of colour is debated all the time. Some articles or blogs that say that colours do have strong meanings and ties.
Does the colour black mean power and authority? White is purity and safety? Purple is wealth and prosperity? Green means money, and darker green is masculine money? Orange is fun and flamboyant?
I could go on. But I want to say that I don't really subscribe to that. Maybe I'm special, but I've never looked at something with a black background, and felt that it meant power and authority. Sure, bleached white socks say purity and cleanliness, but I'm not sure they say safety! I'm drinking out of a purple mug, but I don't feel like it represents wealth.
So I just don't go for that. But colours are important. My approach is that colours are more about mood, and how you use colours together can really help project your company, product, or service personality and image.
Black and pink. Does that mean "whatever black means" plus "whatever pink means"? Not to me. Black and pink looks like modern punky. A bit left of centre. The contrast between something dark and something light. The fishing pole company is unlikely to go with black and pink. :)
Blue and green. They're sometimes equally dark or light shades of blue and green, so this may not be about contrast. These are colours used for nature a lot... eco, water, sky, grass.
People may say that red means passion, but I think it depends what you put it with. Put it with blue, and I'd say you have gone USA patriotic in your theme or mood! I don't look at red and blue, and say WOW... the passion of the red and the confidence of the blue. The colours in combination now have their own meaning to me.
Put red with pink, and I'd say you have something that's probably just feminine. I wouldn't say oh, it's red for passion and danger and pink for whatever pink means. I'd say we're selling to women. :) Also, the pink being a shade of red will give the logo or design a certain mood. Shades can do that!
Orange is flamboyant? Um, I don't think so. Put it with brown, and I'm going to say that 1972 wants its fridge and wood panelling back! Orange and yellow I'd say are bright and sunshine-y. Orange and blue are, well, the NY Mets I guess. :)
So do think about your colours when designing a logo, website, or anything else. I personally don't subscribe to the idea that a single colour will make people all feel the same thing... like we all think of riches and royalty when we see purple. It's also cultural. Wikipedia points out that purple is a colour of mourning in Thailand. So not every person will have the same reaction or connection to a colour.
What about the As Was logo? Did we pick those colours so that you'd imagine the spirituality of the colour violet with the flamboyance of orange? Nooooooo. I chose those colours and looking the way they do in our logo to look like the sunset in the New Mexico (I had been living in Santa Fe just before I had the logo designed). The sunset looks like this in Tucson, AZ (where I was just living for years) as well. The sky gets a really bold and warm violet, just above the horizon is a burning orange-red-orange, and in between, it's a gradient. An old version of our logo used to have the gradient. We now just use the two colours... easier for embroidery. :)
But do think about boldness, warmth, contrast, neutrality, and other "effects" of colour combinations when you're having something designed. It's all about projecting the message of your business!
This morning, from a tweet (Twitter message, for you uninitiated :) ), I found out about TwitPay, which is TwitPay.ME and not .com. It's interesting, but I think it needs a few tweaks before it'll really take off...
It's really easy. If my company just did a change to your eBay listing template, and that was a $50 change, you can tweet, "@aswas twitpay $50 for template change." TwitPay will then use Amazon Payments to make that payment. You use the TwitPay to "settle up," which I assume means connecting your Amazon Payments account to TwitPay, or maybe you have to approve each transaction. I'm honestly not sure about that detail yet.
Amazon Payments takes their cut, which is a bizarre matrix of fees. For every payment 99 cents or greater, TwitPay takes a nickel for their role in the process.
I think it's interesting that the people building this new services chose Amazon and not PayPal. They could have integrated both, and asked which one you want to use. And they could have picked PayPal. But they didn't.
I was never able to get anybody into the idea of sending me money with PayPal through their mobile phone. Both Amazon and PayPal allow you to register your mobile phone, and then send payment to somebody if you know their mobile number or email. Nobody ever did that. Every client I had went to the PayPal website even though it WOULD be shorter to text, "send 50 to [my PayPal email address]" to 729725. Yet nobody seems to do it!
I wonder if tweeting money to people will pick up. My theory? It will once it's done through DM'ing the TwitPay service. Using "@" means that the payment is public, and you've just typed in someone's email address in a place in a public place that can be scraped for spam lists. So I don't like that. Anybody following me or reading my public timeline would see how much I paid and to whom.
So to TwitPay, the only problem I see so far is that one nice thing about people and companies paying each other is that it's a private transaction. You're making it public. Make it through the Twitter direct message system, and I think you have a shot. The convenience could be worth the nickel.
One thing that every seller needs is a good logo. I've always said there are two main approaches to logos: the symbol and the text treatment.
The symbol is something that can stand for the company, product, or service even when no words are there. I hope the As Was logo is that for you! You see our design and colours, and you know it's us even if "As Was" aren't there. Or think of the Nike swoosh. It doesn't have to say "Nike" for you to know. That's a symbol, to me anyway.
The text treatment is when you are really just writing the name out. Maybe you write it plainly like Coach or Prada, or maybe you write it with more pizazz like Yahoo or eBay. But ultimately, this is mostly about font and colour, and not about symbols.
This article in the Positive Space Blog goes further than my breakdown, and identifies 5 types of logos. As this may help you think about what kind of logo you want, I'll quickly run through them here.
What I call the text treatment, Positive Space calls the "wordmark." You're using text and font and colour for your logo.
Their 2nd type is "letterform marks." This is where the logo revolves around the use of individual letters that are designed or styled. I guess I'd think of Qwest or ADP as letterform logos.
Their 3rd type is "marks," which are like what I call symbols. Though in this case, they seem to categorise "marks" more as characters. Think the Trix Rabbit or Linux Penguin. Positive Space says these types of logos relate to the company or a brand attribute. I guess I'd put the Apple "apple" here, though I'd say the "iPhone" and "iPod" logos are really just text treatments.
Their 4th type is "abstract marks and symbols." These look at symbols that aren't any particular character. I think I'd put the Windows logo (the 4 coloured blocks that seem to be flying) here. Positive Space says these logos are about the brand message.
Their 5th type is the "emblem," which Positive Space describes as a combination of words and pictures that relate to the company, product, or service, and how they're positioning it. As an emblem, the slogan might even be part of the logo. I couldn't think of any off-hand. UPS maybe?
Remember that logo design is a really important aspect of your branding and identity. This may not be an area to cheap out. When we've seen cheapy logos, they look like someone stuck together one or two clip art images, and then threw in the name. Well, that's worth what you paid for it, especially since the same company might put together something quite similar for someone else.
The logo should be memorable, which is why symbols often have more impact than just a text treatment. Think about what will be best for your business!
For 14 years now, my company has been on the cutting edge of website design. We did some things that were considered out there... until everybody was doing them. The very warm and visual style people are doing now with backgrounds, lots of mood, etc... is what we've been doing for years.
I'm always looking at where website design is going next, and one amazing thing I noticed was that some time in the 2nd half of 2008, major websites removed their columns. Best Buy, Target, and Office Max are some main ones I tend to watch. I assume they pay for research and focus groups. :) And all three removed their mult-column website format. What do they look like now? Click for larger versions.
Columns are gone. Left side columns full of categories are gone. You can still search sites. And some do categories by having a "categories" button. When you run your mouse over that, categories pop up. Or they have categories along the top, and when you run your mouse over those, sub-choices pop up.
Have you seen the new View Item page eBay is testing? I believe that you will not be able to drop your eBay Store categories down the left. We had said for years to get those out. We thought they were more distracting than helpful, plus who wants to read a gigantic list of words. But now, I think that the new View Item page isn't even letting you put those there.
Left side categories are dead. Long live web design that is more visual, bold, vibrant, and focused on making shoppers feel engaged. Anybody who wants to give you lots of columns is probably not up on where website design has been going for years.
Once you click into a site, it makes sense for a left side column to be used to help you narrow down your search. But this is functional, and enhances your experience. If it makes shopping easier, then it makes sense. But to have those old-style home pages that dump EVERYTHING on there no longer really make sense. Shoppers' attention spans are WAY down. They're not reading. They want something catchy and obvious.
Here is someone who hasn't caught up with the times. :) Very texty. Lots of lists. Lots of messages... join site-to-store, top navigation, see all departments, left navigation, search box, backyard fun, nintendo, find gas prices, prescriptions... I think that's just too much for someone to digest. Too many messages. I look at this, feel overwhelmed, and just want to know where the search box is. :)
I have been playing with Vonage's Visual Voicemail feature for a couple of weeks now, and wanted to give my review. Firstly, I should mention that it currently costs extra. You can pay per Visual Voicemail message, or get a bunch as part of the "Vonage Companion" upgraded service with more features. I'm trying the whole Companion thing.
Visual Voicemail uses technology that tries to transcribe your voice mail. It can then text your phone and/or email it to you. I have it doing both. My emails look lovely. The SMS texts tend to come in a bit slowly and out of order... like a long message might take 4 texts, and I might get 3 of 4, then 1 of 4, then 2 of 4, then 4 of 4. Eek.
But here is a sample of how well it transcribes things. This is a message I got from AAA about renewing my roadside assistance (and it IS time to renew so this was not spam):
"Hi, I'm calling from Triple A Arizona with an important monthly saving message. It's time to renew your membership but I'd like to remind you that there is more to Triple A than our world class 24 hour emergency road service. Triple A show your part and send you program can save you up to 20% on everything from automotive repair, entertainment and dining to hotels, flowers and eye wear. Triple A's exclusive discount provide (??) savings with just a few purchases your savings could easily (??) of your membership. For more information or to renew today call us at 1-800-564-6222 or visit us online at www.aaa.com and thank you for choosing Triple A to be added to our do not call list, please call 1-866-786-3394."
Anything the system isn't sure of comes with parentheses and question marks. Sometimes it's a whole missing word they're not sure of. Sometimes they shoot for the word, and they're not too sure. For example, one transcribed message I got said, "(Tusan Newspapers?)" when they really meant Tucson Newspapers. One message I got started with, "Hi, daddy." It was actually, "Hi, Debbie." So they must have been darn sure he said Daddy to not give it the (??) treatment. Still, I got the message.
This feature has been GREAT. I have been able to sit at a meeting or on a plane or in bed :) and get the message in without having to dial in, listen to the message, write down what people said, etc... I have seen the message come in, and then just responded... like shooting someone an email that I'm on a plane about to take off, or seeing the message come in, and then calling them right back. I think it's making me respond faster, and that can only be good for customer service! :)
Each email comes with links at the bottom that ask you to rate the transcription as "good" or "needs improvement." I haven't clicked yet since I only just noticed the links!
So far, I have to give Vonage Visual Voicemail (and Vonage Companion) a thumbs up. I currently have no plans to downgrade or cancel. I'm liking it!
By the way, if you want to sign up to Vonage and give it a try, we both get some perks if I have referred you as a "friend." Just go to www.vonage.com/friend, and when it asks what phone number sent you, please say 617-996-9020. :) Thanks.
Last year, we took down our eBay fee calculation spreadsheet when it just became too hard to keep current. Sorry!
Recently, a client emailed me a link to another eBay fee calculation tool. I didn't build it, so I can't say anything about how correct or current it is. But hey, it's something!
I've been thinking about eBay's View Item page, and I think it's possibly one of the most important things eBay can "decide" this year. To me, it's simple. If the page is really effective, sellers should see sales go up and "stupid" questions go down. If the page is not effective, sellers might see more questions, fewer sales, and who knows what else. So it's a big thing. Huge, if you ask me.
And this is my realm. As someone who runs a company specialising in eBay template design to make listings more effective and more likely to make the sale, this is close to my heart. So I decided to mock up the "top" of an eBay View Item page.
The only thing to ignore is my icons. I decided to stop trying to find icons for what I wanted sections to say, so I just used my ? icon everywhere. Imagine that other icons would have an appropriate symbol, as in a ? would NOT be next to "item description." :)
My goals? People don't like to read or think, so we have to make this really obvious. And to me, a new View Item page needs to SOLVE problems, and create ZERO problems.
To give shoppers the info that makes or breaks sales, DSRs, and trust RIGHT at the top.
Make it really obvious and clear.
Remove things eBay has scattered or repeated. Consolidate, and make it a no-brainer! I consolidated Watch This Item, SMS updates, and email to a friend.
I tried to make the most important policies DARN obvious so sellers can
stop being asked, "What does shipping cost" or "when will you ship
this?"
I got rid of icons that won't mean anything to shoppers so that they don't wonder what they mean. This will mostly be newbies, but hey, let's face it, the shooting star is nice, but means nothing and could confuse a newbie. Yes, I can put it back. :)
Get the bidding/buying right up top, including the quantity.
I made some things bigger and bolder, and some things smaller. I think that the current design has nearly all the info in the same size and plain with just a few bold things. I think that's not "enough" to draw people's eyes to important areas.
I used phrases like "your seller" and "your item" to plant the seed in the shopper's mind that this item is HIS OR HERS. :) Go, psychology!
I know eBay is designing tabs for detailed policies. I didn't get to that yet. But you can be SURE that my tabs will not be grey with grey writing on white! My tabs will be NOTICEABLE. Un-miss-able. :)
I didn't design/mock-up down this far, but I AM against any right or left columns that have the potential to distract. Just about everything, especially towards the top of the page, should work toward encouraging THIS sale rather than trying to drive people to individual, other items.
So please click on this to enlarge it (full size is 1200 pixels wide, so this is nearly 1/3 the size), and comment to let me know where you think this would be a better or worse eBay View Item concept! Thanks. :)
Airlines are changing rules again, so it's time for you fliers to hear my latest travel tips! These will save lots of time and money.
Baggage
I just flew Delta. They charged me $15 to check one bag, which weighed in at 50 pounds exactly. I asked how much they now charge for overweight bags, and they told me anything over 50 pounds was $90. NINETY DOLLARS. To check a 2nd bag? $25 (on top of the $15 for the first).
So where you used to pack fewer, larger bags, and maybe pay that $25 or $50 for overweight, now the math doesn't work. It would make more sense to pack smaller, lighter bags and pay $40 to check two than to pay $15 to check one + $90 for it being overweight.
So tip #1 is to pack smaller bags that are lighter so that nothing is overweight. I bought two 25" Samsonites. They're too big to carry on board, but they're great! Carry ons must be less than 22" x 14" x 9" on most planes.
Food and Drink
Airlines now barely give you food or drink. You can have a half ounce of peanuts, and a beverage when they feel like giving it to you. It's increasingly a good idea and money-saver to bring your own. I pack lots of food, and after sitting on a plane that was delayed for over an hour before taking off (with no food or drink service while we sat there), take it from me! This is what I tend to bring on a flight:
Peanut Bars (or any granola or snack bars you like). Don't go wild with calories. There's only so many calories you need to sit in one place and do nothing! You just want to feel NOT starving.
A Snickers bar.
A bag of pretzels. I buy the Glutino gluten-free ones from health food stores like Whole Foods. You can eat fewer and feel fuller for longer. That's good... see above about calories. :)
Some other healthy snack. This time, I brought peanut butter sandwich cracker things from the health food store.
Beef with broccoli in a collapsible Rubber Maid container. You read that right. I go to my local Chinese take out, and get beef with broccoli, usually with white rice or pork fried rice. This stuff can be out of the fridge all day, and not go bad (by my standards). So if you're really hungry, you have something healthy that's not mystery meat airplane food. Just pick something with no dairy or mayo... like a turkey sandwich with mayo will get funky after a few hours out of the fridge.
When it comes to beverage, water is the best thing. Flying can make you very dehydrated, and most airlines want to serve you 4 oz of soda. I bring a Camelbak with me. These are those bladders with tubes that people take hiking. You sometimes see soldiers with them. You can get them at many army surplus and hiking stores. They're not cheap, but they're worth it. If you get a Camelbak for say $40, that will quickly pay for itself in $3 bottled water you're NOT buying in the airport.
You CAN go through security with a Camelbak. It has to be empty. No liquids. It doesn't have to be bone dry, but empty it out as best as you can. Once you're through, find a water fountain, and fill it up! Or I went to Starbucks in the airport, and asked for 2 giant ice waters, which were free. That only half-filled my Camelbak, but the ice made the water nice and cool for a long time.
Spare Batteries
My last trip sitting on the tarmac, delayed, reminds me to buy a spare battery for my new laptop. I have a little Lenovo that's meant to be very compact, which it is, but the battery only lasts 2 hours on a good day. So I should pony up the $100, and get a spare battery, maybe the big one. That would have been nice during that delay!
But I had my cell phone, and it has the mongo spare battery on it, which did last. But for those of you with the original or tiny batteries, best to have a spare. I say buy them on eBay of course. :) If you're going to talk through the delay, please talk quietly. We all wanted to kill the woman we sat near for how loud she was and the somewhat uncomfy nature of some of her loud topics.
Prepare for Comfort
This means dress comfortably, and in ways that'll make going through security easy for you.
And I'm tired of nobody giving me a blanket on a flight. I think I'm going to take myself to a hiking store, get a fleecy blanket that rolls up really small, and attach it to my backpack. I have a blow-up pillow already, but have to find it.
Also in the realm of comfort is the size of your carry on. I talked before about the allowed dimensions, but don't forget that the under-seat area of most aisle seats is narrower than other seats. A wide bag or backpack won't fit under there, plus you'll kill any room for your feet with a giant bag. If you like aisle seats like I do, then you too will want to switch to a narrow backpack. I got mine at the army surplus store for $50.
And those are my travel tips! Many are the same as they were last time, but as travel evolves, my tips need to evolve too! Happy and safe travels!
The Whine Seller had a great blog post earlier this month that reminded me of something I wanted to write about. Hillary's comment about the most succesful people not really hanging out on discussion boards reminded me of what I wanted to share.
It started when I was telling a friend that I like to use meetup.com, which I do, and that back in Tucson, I made my best friends from people I met there. Two couples from a "dining out" group and one couple from a "small business" group. I was telling this friend that I also like to go to Law Of Attraction meetups because I do believe that you can make what you want happen.
My friend suggests that I stop going to those meetings. Huh? Why? She asked me if the people who are successfully using the Law of Attraction and creating everything they want in their lives are going to this meeting.
I'd never thought of that.
No, it's mostly people who want to create things, but haven't made them happen yet or fully. My friend pointed out that in that case, the people coming to the meetings probably are coming from a place of lacking what they want in their lives. They'll be thinking about that lack, they'll be talking about it, and that'll be their focus... not having what they want. Surrounding myself with those people won't raise my game!
So I said, OK, we'll go to the next meeting with the focus of, "Let's just meet nice people who could be friends," and not think about the rest. Husband and I went. Looked around at nearly 70 people there. Saw really bizarre people. Finally, my husband says to me, "I don't want to talk to anybody here but you. When I'm in a group like this, I'm looking for winners. I'm looking for people who have their shit together. I don't see any." I guess that's a bit judgmental, but I didn't see any either. So I think we're done with that group. :)
Hillary's blog post reminded me of that when she talked about the most successful Lulu.com authors not being part of their discussion forums. When you go to a discussion board to get help with eBay, are the most successful eBay sellers there? Probably not. They are probably very busy running their businesses, and are not hanging out on these boards. That doesn't mean that the people who are there are failures - they're not! But they may not be the top sellers on the site. And if they're the angry villagers with torches, they're probably not the most successful sellers.
My good marketing message today is think about who you surround yourself with... successful people? Complainers? Angry people? People who couldn't make things happen for themselves? Make deliberate choices to surround yourself with successful people who support you. :)
Last week, I saw some interesting blog comments and some private emails that made me realise that the average eBay seller probably doesn't understand some things about why the "new" eBay Stores limit what can be designed by professional design companies.
The person who wrote to me said his eBay Store home page can still get lots of design, but he wanted to know why eBay would take away the ability to design the "inside" pages. I assume he means the pages shoppers see once they click past and away from your custom eBay Store home page. This would include the pages they see when they do a search or click on a category inside your eBay Store.
Well, thing 1, we've seen some data that says that not everybody gets past custom Store home pages. Some just get confused by an overdesigned home page, get frustrated, and leave your Store. This is called a "bounce." That's part of why we don't like to sell people on custom eBay Store home pages! But back to his question.
eBay didn't take away the right or ability to design the pages shoppers see once they're past your custom Store home page. We never had those rights. We only had the ability by writing code that broke eBay's rules, code that took elements eBay put on the page, and overwrote them, moved them, reshaped them, hid them, etc... And by putting that code where you can put your design for an eBay Store header, that design then automatically showed up on every eBay Store page including search results, category browses, and even your About Me page.
So that approach to the "advanced" design of an eBay Store was always against the rules in that it broke the "Site Interference" rule. Once eBay announced (in Jan 2009) that it was going to crack down on that rule more strongly and consistently than it had been, the style of using code to re-lay out eBay Store pages became forbidden. Without being able to drop in that code that globally re-lays things out and moves them around, the "inside" pages lose that "advanced" formatting.
There is no place inside eBay's "Manage My Store" design area that lets us say ah, this is what the home page looks like, this is what this inside page looks like, this is what this inside page looks like, etc... You can only control the header, the promo boxes, and things down the left side. We were never supposed to overdesign things, and re-lay out the whole page. People did, and evidently that didn't work because now it's banned.
And let's follow the logic trail on why it's banned! It flew under the radar a LONG time, long enough for eBay to collect data on how those Stores did, even compared to competitors' non-overdesigned Stores. My theory is still that these Stores confused shoppers, who were expecting to see typical eBay Stores. They got used to the looks and layouts, and they became familiar with what was where, making the Store easier to use, even when you landed on one you'd never been to before. But if you land on a new one, and it looks like nothing else, you have to figure it out. Where is what I'm used to? Some people will adjust and figure it out. Some will just leave.
And my theory is that if eBay found that these Stores were more likely to convert shoppers to buyers, and to help them find what they wanted, eBay would have embraced that style of design. My theory is that that style of design is not as effective as something that stays closer to the eBay Stores paradigm. And my theory is also that if eBay saw more sales and therefore more eBay revenue from these kinds of Stores, they would have wanted everybody to design like that.
But first, they refused to give any Stores designed like that any Best in Stores awards. Then, they decided to ban the design style. eBay has no good reason to do that if this design style were making sellers (and eBay) more money. eBay wants more sales and more money, and will adjust policy to support them making money! I believe this adjustment is that... I believe sellers do better and eBay makes more money when eBay Stores are not overdesigned.
I just wanted to make sure that sellers understood what the design options are, what eBay took away, and what was never really there for us designers.
I found an article earlier this week about how the state of North Carolina is working on a bill to make libel a crime. Evidently, they are finding that the amount of libel and lies in blogs and other internet postings is huge, and is going mostly unchecked.
Well that makes sense. Right now, what incentive is there to NOT lie in a blog? What incentive is there to NOT purposefully damage or defame another person or company in a blog or online post of some sort? I am all about truth, and I think that if it takes making lying a crime to get people to not do it, then make it a crime. They're looking at making this a Class 2 misdemeanor, which includes carrying a
concealed weapon, resisting an officer, and simple assault.
So it looks like NC is thinking about classifying this where they put assault, and the max would be 60 days in jail. I think the interesting question would be this: blogs and internet discussions are global. If a person in NY defames a company that's a corporation of NV, but it's read by people of NC, can you ask NC to arrest the person libelling that company? Who has to be in which state for this to take effect?
To recap, your right to Free Speech is more about being able to say something in public without the Secret Police renditioning you. :) It doesn't mean you can say anything, any time, on any topic. It doesn't mean you can say untrue things, especially lies designed to hurt how a company does business.
Remember that your right to Free Speech stops at my right to not be lied about around the internet! I'm FOR the idea that lying, especially lies designed to hurt business, could be a crime. Maybe that'll stop people from that kind of crap. Shame that people NATURALLY don't choose to NOT lie as that would give me more faith in humanity. :) But maybe fear of the law will make people think twice.
The prices we put out there are the best we can do. We think that's fair to you. All of our clients pay the same prices (unless you worked with us years ago under different pricing). We don't negotiate or haggle. We run some promotions from time to time.
We think that's good marketing. We think that people whose pricing is negotiable aren't doing their best to give you their best pricing.
I recently called to get another cable box. I was told it's $5.95/month just to have it. I told them oh, I didn't really want to pay for that. No problem! They have a promotion that'll give it to me free for 18 months, no strings, no contracts. Just free, and evidently because I asked.
I recently had a billing issue with Vonage, who was trying to bill me for an account I had cancelled TWICE. At first, they couldn't do anything, and I needed to pay up, so I started pushing against them because I didn't want to pay for ANY of this. Then, they wanted an extra $40 to cancel the account (again). Then, they realised the mistake, and offered to remove the charges they were chasing me to pay (the months of service on the cancelled account), but they still wanted the $40. Then, they wanted me to pay the $40 and offered me $120 of credits on another account of mine to cover that $40 and apologise for my trouble. The more I pushed, the closer I got, but I had to push for an HOUR to get this done. I asked the guy why he couldn't have just made this resolution happen the FIRST time I asked! He didn't seem to have an answer.
Ever book a hotel room while talking to that hotel on the phone? The hotel rate? $199. OK do you have anything lower? Well, we have $169. OK, and do you have any AAA rates? Yes, $154. You have to ask MULTIPLE times to get a hotel's best rate.
So I understand people asking if my prices are flexible, and I understand people being used to having to ask a few times in case the number of times you ask makes the difference. But we are giving the best prices we can give. Despite many clients and even some eBay staff saying we could charge a lot more for what we do and give, we chose to not raise any prices for 2009. We're doing the best we can for you!
Someone asked me why I wouldn't negotiate our prices with him. There are many reasons, and I thought I'd throw these out there. I'm not the only business taking this approach!
There is only so much profit in my pricing! Please don't assume that 50% of what I charge you is clear profit... it isn't. That would be great if it were, but this type of business is typically not high profit.
Think about the time that goes into custom projects done from scratch. Here is a website designed to help companies quote prices. Look at what sort of time and tasks they are including: http://estimator.astuteo.com/
When I used to negotiate pricing in the 1990s, and let people haggle to get a lower price, I found two things happened:
Our pricing was never taken seriously again. If a year later, I quoted $100 to make a change the client wanted, he wanted to give me $50.
These were our highest-maintenance clients. The people who wanted to pay the least were always the guys who wanted lots of phone time, emails, help, support, etc... I like to give those things, but I'm just saying that after nearly 14 years in this business, I've noticed that the people who pay the least want the most service. I think the people who paid regular prices appreciated our time and expertise, and only wanted to take that time when they really needed it.
You pay for my time and my company's time. So to spend my time on emails or phone calls trying to get me to charge you for X minutes less... while making me spend Y minutes more to deal with you... hey that math is not going to work! I'm going to want someone to pay for that Y minutes of time you just took!
Negotiating is a waste of your time. Your time is more valuable than for it to be spent trying to talk me into doing your project at a financial loss to me! Let's just get on with the project!
I probably quoted your price knowing you would need Z minutes of discussion time about the change, project, or whatever it is.
I can't match so-and-so's price because so-and-so has a different business model. My team are Americans in America, who are all experts in what they do. I don't hire kids or junior staffers, and I don't pay people minimum wage or just above it as other companies do. I don't send As Was work to other countries. Your As Was Account Manager is not in India. :) I'm trying to help the American economy, and I'm trying to pay fairly. When you pay As Was, that's where your money goes.
I may also not be able to match so-and-so's price because so-and-so doesn't offer the work and relationship that we offer. We are consultants looking at strategy, marketing, branding, design, and more. So-and-so is probably doing a slightly customised version of what he sells to everybody else. If we did that, we could charge much less, but all of our designs are unique, truly custom, and from scratch.
People talk! When I recommend businesses to my friends and colleagues, I might mention what I paid. Our prices are on our website. If each person paid different amounts based on how much or hard you pushed me in negotiations, I think that would make people bitter. If everybody gets the same level of service from us, but you paid $2000 and this guy paid $2200 and this guy paid $1750 and this guy paid $1200, then that's going to be a big mess for me. People will talk, people will want refunds, happy customers will immediately feel unhappy and lied to. That's not good!
We have heard many times over the last year or so that for the level of design that we do, and for the amount of help and personal attention we give people, we could (and should) be charging much more. I have decided that I will keep our prices as steady as I can to try to make us more affordable to more people. But I do believe that for what we do for our clients, we could be charging a lot more. Plenty of companies charge more and give less. :)
So our pricing is our pricing. No hidden extras. No sneaky charges later. No monthly fees. Everybody pays the same. Everybody gets the best attention and service we have to give. No negotiations. We have promotions now and then, but no haggling. I think that is fair, and I think that is good marketing.
As I speak to more and more people on the phone, I hear things like, "I don't like contracts," or "I don't read them anyway," or "The last guy I worked with didn't even have one." And if they're calling me, they're unhappy with that guy, and may have little they can do since they have no signed agreement. What was promised, what you're paying for, whether you get your money back or not... it's all he said, she said without good, signed documents.
This week, a guy on the phone told me he doesn't bother with contracts because if something goes wrong, he just forgets the money loss and chalks it up to lesson learned. Well, the lesson learned should be HAVE A CONTRACT NEXT TIME! You may have to kiss that money goodbye, but contracts are still very important.
I have seen contracts that say that your vendor owns all the work he does for you... that would stink. I have seen contracts that say that if you have a problem with the vendor, you cannot sue them for more than $1. I knew a lot of people who had a problem with that company last year, and they were all stuck with no resolution they liked because they had agreed to a contract with that clause. Some contracts say you can't sue at all... you have to go for arbitration. That's why having and reading a contract is important!
It's like an insurance policy. You get it and you hope you never need it. Here are the steps for making sure that this is the company you want to work with.
Ask for their contract. If they don't have one, or just want to email you some terms, I wouldn't accept it. Any professional company will have a contract.
Read the damn thing! Read it, ask questions about it, show it to a lawyer if you need to. But don't just sign it since you have no idea to what you're agreeing. Do not assume that the contract is fine because it looks like a nice legal document. Make sure it protects YOU. You wouldn't buy an insurance policy that didn't have the protection and coverage you needed!
If you don't agree to the terms, don't sign it. Don't give the company any money. Don't make any payments. If you don't like how they plan to do business with you, just pay nothing because you may not get it back. Here are two stories illustrating this:
A friend of mine recently put a security deposit down on an apartment without signing anything about what does that money go to, what happens when she moves in, and what happens if she never moves in. Well, she ended up picking another apartment, and signing their lease. She expected the first landlord to give her her money back, and the woman wouldn't. Many landlords do this... they are out money from taking that apartment off the market to hold it for you, so they keep security deposits, even when you don't move in. And without any signed paperwork saying she gets her money back, she wouldn't have had any legal recourse there.
Similarly, I moved recently. I found an apartment online, but wasn't ready to sign anything since I hadn't seen it. They wouldn't hold it for me unless I gave them $1500 as a security deposit that they would COMPLETELY keep if I ended up not taking the apartment. So I gave them nothing, and I signed nothing. And just as I was counting on this apartment, they called me to say they gave it someone else.They had that right! I later saw the neighbourhood, and am glad I didn't give them the $1500. I would have not taken that place, and I would have forfeited that money.
This is another situation where watching Judge Judy can clear things up. :) Ever see a case where someone lends someone else money that never gets paid back, and the guy who got the money says it was a gift? Well, without paperwork saying it was a loan, it's going to be hard to prove to any court (real or TV) that the intention of that arrangement was for the money to be paid back.
If you have no paperwork saying what this company is doing for how much money, and what happens if things go bad between you, you may not have much to show in court. You may feel wronged, but like the guy I spoke to, you may have to kiss that money goodbye and learn a valuable lesson about signing a contract where you agree to the terms.
These aren't emotional issues. These are business issues, and a court is not going to ask you how you FEEL about this. It's business, and has to stand up in court with no feelings attached. Sometimes, you may feel in the right, but the law may not be on your side. A fair contract that both parties can sign can help the law be on your side when you feel in the right.
We have scheduled a live internet radio show every Wednesday at noon Eastern time. It's all about helping eBay sellers be more compliant with rules, both the new rules that eBay announces as well as old rules. Just because you flew under the radar in the past doesn't mean you'll be able to keep flying under the radar! Really? Yes! Read on!
Yesterday, eBay's Stores announcement included more formally outlawing non-compliant eBay Store designs. This means thousands of eBay Stores will break, including Stores that people paid "professional" companies to design. This is bad!
The 15 Jan 09 deadline on getting references to paper payments out of your eBay templates and listings also shines a light on eBay rules and compliance issues.
So it's time to look compliance. Most eBay sellers don't know all of eBay's rules, especially as they have been evolving. This means that many sellers are breaking rules by mistake, and certainly some are breaking rules on purpose.
Non-compliance is bad for two reasons.
Firstly, the obvious... if you break rules and eBay cracks down on you, that's on your record. You could get suspended, and that can affect how you show up in search since compliance is part of the Best Match algorithm along with seller performance.
Second, the art of the scramble. When eBay cracks down on new or old rules, you probably need to change. This means time and money. For some people, the change feels impossible. We have a client who has over 6,000 items on eBay at any given moment. Any change that requires him to change something in all of his listings will be costly at the very least, certainly time-consuming, and nearly impossible at the worst!
So join us for our weekly talk radio show. Call in or get into the live chat. We'll take a look at what you're doing, and let you know what changes you should make. No, talking about non-compliant things won't make you a target for eBay. They will be glad you care and are cleaning things up.
Right now, there are some sellers who are worried about their eBay Store design and it compliance after today's announcement by eBay.
We're here to say DON'T WORRY. Contact us. Even if we didn't do your Store, we can quote you a price on doing whatever work it needs. Many will need to be rebuilt, some will need small fixes.
You might even decide that since you have time before you HAVE to use the new Stores layout, you can hire us for the template as well.
A designed, compliant Store is nice. But a designed, compliant, effective eBay listing template is even better. People might search, find, buy from you, or choose to not buy from you without ever seeing your Store. Therefore, we think you should be thinking about your listings, and what we can do for you.
eBay just made an announcement about eBay Stores. We support it! We think it's great that some changes to how an eBay Store looks will help the site be more consistent. That can only help shopping and buying. But the announcement raises some issues. Here is our press release:
As Was Assures The Compliance Of
Their eBay Store Designs
eBay’s
announcement on January 13, 2009 means that so-called “Advanced” eBay Stores
that use certain design and coding will no longer display correctly, and must
be phased out immediately. Are you one of thousands of eBay sellers who paid an
“eBay Store design specialist” for an eBay Store that now has to be replaced?
For the last few years, eBay sellers who called
As Was looking for an “advanced” eBay Store design were talked out of it. As
Was told sellers individually and in classes at eBay Live, RocketPlace, and
other conferences that these designs break an eBay rule called Site
Interference. The staff at As Was were made aware of the Site Interference rule
in November 2004. Having seen eBay crack down on Site Interference, As Was didn’t
want to risk it for sellers, and has since chosen to stay away from “Advanced”
eBay Stores that break this rule.
Sellers
will no longer have the option to try to fly under the rules radar. eBay’s
announcement about the exciting new version of eBay Stores includes a more
stringent crack-down on the Site Interference rule. For example, under the new
Stores upgrade, http://www.aswas.com/img/bambinibarucci-old.jpg
(not designed by As Was) will look like http://www.aswas.com/img/bambinibarucci.jpg.
The repeating background and changed link colors mean that even in this broken
state, this Store is still not compliant with Site Interference. Watch our video explaining the Site Interference rule, and how currently-infringing Stores will break.
Thousands
of eBay Stores that were never compliant will now completely break under the
new Store layout that eBay is phasing in throughout Q1 2009. This includes
Stores built by “eBay Store design specialists” who have “extensive experience”
with eBay selling, and are claiming to provide you with the “most advanced high
impact eBay design”. These “professional eBay design” companies who took money
to build and install non-compliant Stores either didn’t know their designs broke
eBay rules, or they knew but chose to break the rules anyway.
“Years
ago, we made the decision to choose honesty, compliance, and future-mindedness
for our clients,” said Debbie Levitt, CEO of As Was. “Not only did we know
these Stores broke eBay rules, but they’re also often overdesigned for what the
eBay shopper expects to experience around eBay. We knew this, we heard it from
sellers who bought these overdesigns and saw disappointing results, and we feel
like this eBay announcement echoes our theory about the eBay Stores experience.”
Levitt
continued, “eBay disallowing this style of Store design seems to support my conclusion
that overdesigned Stores didn’t work very well. No Stores that have ever won
eBay’s Best In Stores Award had these “Advanced” (non-compliant) designs. If
these types of designs worked well towards converting shoppers into buyers, I’d
imagine that eBay’s announcement this month would be in greater support of this
type of design rather than to more formally outlaw it.”
It’s
not just the companies claiming to be eBay experts that worry Debbie Levitt.
“There are a lot of eBay sellers using freelance, outsourcing, and job-bidding
websites to try and find people who will cheaply build so-called advanced eBay Stores,”
Levitt explained. “I want to help get the message out about the new eBay Stores
so that sellers can spend their money more wisely. Anything spent on a
non-compliant eBay Store is wasted money, especially if the designer is not
going to fix the broken Store for free.”
As
Was designs like Msss Kel’s Place, winner of the 2008 eBay Best In Stores
award, will continue looking fabulous without any changes or alterations
needed. http://www.aswas.com/img/mssskel-old.jpg is the old version of the
Store, which will transition seamlessly to the new version of Stores, http://www.aswas.com/img/mssskel.jpg.
As
Was is happy to continue offering eBay sellers the best in service and
attention. As consultants and eBay experts, we are always advising clients on
what is allowed, as well as how to respond to all of the changes eBay has been
making. Best known for eBay listing template design and eBay Store design, the
one-on-one relationship As Was enjoys with each seller also extends to strategy
advice as well as off-eBay services such as website design, print design, and
marketing consulting.
As
Was will continue offering innovative and creative designs as well as tools to
help eBay and online sellers. Developed throughout 2008 in total compliance
with eBay’s current and upcoming initiatives, As Was will soon be launching a
new tool to help eBay sellers cross-promote items within their eBay listings,
eBay Store, and even outside of eBay.
Sellers
looking to upgrade from their current paid Frooition design to the custom, unique, and
compliant work done by As Was can enjoy our competitive upgrade pricing offer. Learn
more about As Was at http://www.aswas.com.
I did ColderICE's radio show yesterday, and one of the points I was making was about only hiring design companies or people who really know eBay rules. That way, they won't design something that is non-compliant, and either gets you in trouble with eBay, or costs you more down the road to fix.
A good question came into the chat room, which was, "How can sellers know which designer really knows the rules?"
That IS a hard one! Anybody can say they know the rules, but you really won't know until eBay cracks down on something that was against the rules.
My answer was to talk about something that's in our contract. We have a clause that says that if we design you something for eBay that is NOT compliant with eBay rules at the time that we made it, and eBay cracks down on you, we'll fix it ASAP for free. If we design something, and you specifically request that we do something against the rules, and we tell you it's against the rules, and eBay cracks down on you, we'll fix it, but not for free. When would that happen? Sometimes, clients ask for lots of company logos in their listings. This is technically against the rules, but is often not cracked down on. We advise people this is against the rules, but sometimes they see their competition doing it, and they insist on doing it. If they get caught, we'll fix it, but not for free since that wasn't our fault.
So there are a few things to make sure your contract says when you plan to work with a design company making something for eBay:
Who owns the work? Do you own what they make for you, or do they reserve the right to use it for other people? If the contract doesn't specify, just know that US law says that artwork is the property of the artist unless and until the rights are signed away in writing to someone else. So saying NOTHING about who owns the work is the same as saying the design company owns the work. It may be important to you that you own it AND that they don't use the same look for someone else!
What happens if something they design breaks eBay rules that are in effect at the time it was created? Will they fix it for free, or will they want you to pay to fix it? You may want the contract to detail that so that you're not stuck paying to fix something that never should have been broken.
We've been telling people for years that web design (and eBay design) has no reached its peak. We kept hearing disagreement... that you have to put everything in columns, you have to shove everything you can in front of someone's face.
We just don't think that's what works in a low attention span, text messages are too much to read, society. We think things have to be more visual and easier to use. Less to read. Forget columns since one column always loses while one gets attention.
People still push against us. OK, we'll do our thing, and you do yours, and see how it comes out. :)
We even had one guy choose someone who thinks he competes with us... I know the other guy designs things that all look the same. I asked the client why he chose the other guy, especially after telling us how much he loved our work. His answer? He thought it would be better for his site to look like everybody's else's in his industry rather than standing out like we wanted it to.
?!?!?!?!
I saw this the other day, and felt like it was standing behind what I've been saying for years:
Now, I might not suggest this for everybody on the planet, but I think what this site picked as outstanding really says something. Backs me up! :) Backs up what I've been saying about standing out, being more visual, and going against "what everybody else is doing" so that you can do what your target audience needs. It's about mood and personality. It's about making your reader/shopper feel a part of something. It's about keeping the page interesting so it's stickier.
We've been trying to tell you this for years, and you weren't listening. It's 2009. Time to stop designing like it's 2003. Listen to us. Having done websites since 1995, we know what we're talking about!
Everybody, prepare for design to be something other than what you're used to. The endless columns and lists and words are going to have to go away because they don't work. It's a 140-character Twitter world. You have half a second to make an impression on someone. What do you want your website or eBay listings to look like?
Twitter's hot, and I love it. I actually keep four accounts on Twitter because different things interest different people.
My aswas account is mostly for As Was business... eBay and eCommerce commentary, updates on blog posts, updates on webinars and events, and some fun or personal things. Despite this being my business account, people seem to love photos of my dog doing hysterical things. :) This account usually details my road trips and travels.
My rocketplace account is mostly for RocketPlace stuff... which would mostly be updates to http://community.rocketplace.com as well as info about webinars and events we'll be holding.
My yourppl account is mostly about the music business. Music business headlines and commentary. Updates on things I might be doing in the music business. Hey, I have to have SOME fun outside of my eBay adventures! :)
My dlev account is going to be mostly personal, and is a protected account. On Twitter, that means I have to approve you to be able to follow me, and my updates won't show up in public timelines. Like most people use Facebook, this is going to be an account nearly exclusively for trusted pals. Please don't take it personally if you're not approved. Personal is personal! :)
So those are my accounts. Maybe more to come in the future. :) But who do I follow and why? Well firstly, I take following seriously. I'm only following about half the people who follow me. That's not as a rule. When someone follows me, I read their bio, and the last 2 pages of their tweets. I'm very active on Twitter, which means I read absolutely everything that my friends post, including @ that I get from people I'm not following. I reply to everybody. The more people I follow, the harder this will be to keep up. How do I pick who I'm following?
Here is what I'm looking for...
If you have a LOT of @ posts, it makes me think you are mostly in semi-private conversations with people I don't know. Due to how Twitter works, I won't see the other part of that conversation, just your replies. So it might be disjointed, and may not be the most fun to read. It's like sitting NEAR you on a train, and overhearing your half of a cell phone call. :)
If you hate things I like, or are way more negative about something I'm generally positive about, I'm less likely to follow you. I am all for people having their own opinions, but being a positive person, I may not want to fill my day with commentary from someone who is angry or negative, even if that anger or negativity is totally understandable. I tend to feel like there's enough anger and negativity in the world without inviting MORE of it into my day. :(
it your tweets rave on and on about someone in my business circles who I have unfortunately completely lost respect for, I am unlikely to follow you. Chances are that I know something about that person you don't, so you still love this person, and I think this person is a sham, scammer, or who-knows-what. So I may not want to include hearing more about this person in my day.
If you are using Twitter as your daily sales machine, I am unlikely to follow you. So if you use Twibler or any tool to push frequent "this is what I have for sale online!" notices to your Twitter, count me out. If you have something REALLY amazing that you've put online, I don't mind you mentioning that. But if you know Twitter, then you know what I mean, and I'm unlikely to follow those people.
If your Twitter account is mostly personal, and I don't know you, I may not follow you since I don't have a lot of frame of reference for your daughter's dance class or the concert you're going to see tomorrow. I don't know you! :)
I'm currently not keeping my enemies closer. :) If we've had a falling out, you might still be following me, but I'm probably not going to want to see your name and face all day long.
That's how I work Twitter. It's business, and it's social. But I'm picky, and you shouldn't take it personally if I am not following you. I don't say YES to everybody who adds me on Facebook. Some people say that you should say yes to those people and follow every Twitter person who follows you so you can build that social network... and then market to those people. I don't think you want me using you like that, do you? I'd rather build a network of people who genuinely like me or are genuinely interested in what I have to say (or both) because no marketing is better than genuine like and respect. :)
This economy stinks. It's a good idea to cut down on anything you can, and make a few sacrifices. Even if you save the amount of money that your cable/internet bill costs in a month, hey that's something!
One thing to note is that I still want quality food even though I also want savings. Pre-packaged food, stuff made in factories, and microwave meals may be cheap. But you'll be sacrificing your health with all those chemicals and foods lacking nutrition. I've seen a few TV shows where people talk about how they packed on so much weight, and very often, it's because they were low on money and starting buying really cheap food and McDonalds.
It's not worth sacrificing your health. You'll pay for it in energy and mood, and you'll pay for it at the doctor's office or hospital. So be good to yourself!
Here are some of my money-saving ideas. I welcome yours in the comments section!
1) Coffee! Lots of us get coffee out on the road, and overpay for it. Every time I get a decaf soy cinnamon dolce at Starbucks, it runs me almost $5. My local health food store has DELICIOUS decaf french vanilla coffee for $7.99/lb, ground or beans. I found CoffeeMate's new cinnamon bun flavour. And hey, it's a good copy. Each cup probably costs me pennies. If you can cut say 3 Starbucks drinks out per week, you will save around $15 per week.
Another coffee idea is to look for the places that give deals... free coffee if you come in with their mug. Discounts if you come in with any mug. Brueggers Bagels has an offer right now. Pay $109-149 (depending on location) for a special mug and card, and get free unlimited coffee in it (they charge extra for flavoured syrups). So if you get a cup of coffee every workday, and you can stop here and use this mug, each cup of coffee may have cost you around 50 cents. Probably still cheaper to make your own and put it in your own damn mug, but if you like the "getting coffee outside my house" feeling, this should do it on a good budget.
2) Meat on sale. My local supermarkets tend to put their meat on sale when it's closer to its "use by" date. The meat's still good. And it was packaged by the butcher, so hopefully it's better than some of the weird things I've seen factories do with packaged meats. I've seen good cuts of meat get sold for under $3/pound. You have to use it soon, but these are great places to save sometimes half or more off the regular price. Maybe you could save $10 per week.
3) Definitely cook more often. When I think about what a plate of pasta costs in a restaurant, I tend to lose my mind. :) I'm not even that fond of buying sauce in a jar as I think I can make something better and healthier. A pound of pasta is what, 89 cents? A dollar? I like spelt pasta as it's healthier and tastes great. That's $2.70 per box, so it does cost a bit more. Then what can you do? Make easy sauces with tomato or olive oil bases. Get a giant can of diced tomatoes. Get some fresh or frozen veg. Get some fresh garlic and onions. You can even get a jarred alfredo sauce if you want to add a little cheesiness. Or don't since that's just calories.
Pasta and sauce for your whole family? Maybe $10 or so! And healthy and homemade and EASY. You stick all the sauce things in a giant pan, covered, to sweat it out together. Fresh mushrooms can be great in there. Spinach. Maybe you got some chicken breasts on sale, and can cut in a few breasts for the family to share. Healthy, tasty, easy. Dinner out for 4 people after tax and tip? Easily $30 if not way more. Save $15-20 PER MEAL.
4) Freeze! I like to make a giant thing of pasta sauce, break it into smaller containers, freeze some and fridge some. Pasta may not freeze so well, but many things do. Look for books on freezer cooking as those will have recipes and the how-tos for freezing and unfreezing.
5) Kids don't have to eat crap. When I came home from high school, every day, I boiled water. Put in pasta. Threw Velveeta on it. Fried up some ground beef. Made my own beefy mac and cheese. No microwaves. Is that the healthiest meal known to man, no. But your kids don't HAVE to microwave everything. Not everything has to come from a factory. Not everything has to come from a drive through window. They CAN learn to cook. They can learn to cook things that have SOME nutritional value.
Those are some money-saving tips on food while not sacrificing your health. I hope to have more entries with money-saving tips in other life areas. :)
I made this last weekend, and I hope you guys will like it!
Take your turkey breast meat. Tear it nice and small, or get it in the food processor on low so it's not so damn dry and chunky.
Get that in a bowl. Add mayo until it's paste-y, and would stay on a sandwich all huddled together. Dry turkey? More mayo. :)
Now how this is spiced is the key! Here is what I added to mine:
Yellow curry powder. Zing!
Paprika
Lime pepper. It's pepper with some lime crystals. Zing!
Chipotle sauce. The best one is the Búfalo brand, which I'm lucky enough to have in my local supermarket here in Tucson, AZ. It's just chipotle sauce, nothing else in there. So it's smoky and a bit spicy, but not painful. Don't add too much. The dominant flavour will be the curry.
Best to let this sit overnight in the fridge, even though it's good right away. But the flavours will really combine over night, and it's a nice, moist turkey salad with an international zing!
With Microsoft offering the Live Cash Back promo, we are putting our design and consulting package as well as our consulting-only package on eBay. Get 25% off by walking through some steps. Also have a PayPal coupon from eBay? You can use that to to save even more!
Step 1: Go to www.live.com and search for "Business Strategy." Your search results might look like this:
See that first sponsored search results that says that you can buy Strategy on eBay and get 25% off? Click that.
You'll then get over 15,000 eBay items in search results for "strategy." Find ours towards the top because we listed it with Featured Plus. That should put it among the handful of items at the top.
Not there? Search for more words in the title, like "business selling strategy" without the quotes. Just those three words in an eBay search. You should then get all of our eBay items.
Find it! Buy it! Pay with PayPal! Get $200 back from Microsoft later on through the Cash Back programme.
Hi. For those following with my sad saga, I now have two basically brand new laptops. I bought the HP in August to replace a Lenovo I had that had never really worked right. I now have a NEW Lenovo because Lenovo finally woke up and replaced my faulty laptop.
Here is what you would want to know, assume you're as geeky as I am.
HP 6985SE: Intel Core 2 Duo T5750 @ 2GHz, 4G RAM, Windows Vista Ultimate (I upgraded), 250GB hard drive. CD/DVD burner with LightScribe. Trackpad pointing device. 64-bit operating system (came that way). I chose it from Best Buy because I was tired of my faulty Lenovo. It was $999 at the time (plus the Vista upgrade software purchase, which was $70). I chose it because CNET seemed to love it, especially over the other computers in the same class/price range.
Lenovo X200 Tablet: Intel Core 2 Duo L9400 @ 1.86GH. 2G RAM (2 more on the way as I just bought them on eBay). Windows Vista Business, 32-bit. Touchpoint device (the nipple, as I call it) and buttons. No track pad because it's a touch screen tablet. I got the upgraded screen, and the extra Intel Turbo Memory. Lenovo's website will custom build this spec for you for around $2500. I chose it because Lenovo let me spec out a replacement up to my original purchase price on the bad laptop, and I had spent $2500. So I went for something really different than the HP to give Lenovo another chance!
And they're off!
The HP clearly wins for a few things. It seems to be faster, though I'm not sure if adding more RAM to the Lenovo will help there. The screen is BEAUTIFUL and awesome for movies. It has a huge battery, which adds to the weight, but it does get around 5 hrs from a full charge. It feels very nice to use... nice keyboard, nice styling over all. I also got the HP docking station thing, and that makes hooking and unhooking the computer to things like my monitor, keyboard, mouse, and other peripherals REALLY easy.
The Lenovo clearly wins for a few things. The size and weight are great. I doubt this weighs more than 3 pounds with the low-life battery. The screen is nice, the keyboard is your usual comfy keyboard. The ThinkVantage system has function buttons that quickly get me to utilities I use all the time like power manager, going into sleep mode, and presentation mode (telling it to show on my external monitor). I do NOT yet have the Lenovo dock for this model, so right now, hooking and unhooking to peripherals is time-consuming.
The Lenovo is a true laptop. It's on my lap, it's nice and flat, and it weighs NOTHING. The HP has a bulky, funny shaped battery that sort of acts as a stand to make the back higher than the front. But put that on your lap, and it's a ship on a stormy sea. But, the Lenovo's smaller 4-cell battery, which comes with it, only runs for just over 2 hrs on a full charge.
The Lenovo, being 32-bit, meant NO incompatibilities with apps I wanted to use. There are some apps I haven't been able to use on the HP because some companies haven't come out with 64-bit versions or drivers. That has sucked.
The Lenovo, being light and portable, has NO optical drive. If I want to use or burn CDs or DVDs, I have to get an external USB drive. Now that's not the end of the world. I find I DON'T very often use or burn CDs or DVDs. I guess I could always put stuff on my external drive, and have the HP burn it. But if I think I will need that, I've been finding "slim" portable DVD RW DL USB drives for around $80. Not so bad.
Will I use the tablet-ness a lot? I'm not sure yet. I like the touch screen, but am not sure how often I will tap the screen. I know the Lenovo is probably better for travelling as it's SO compact. It's the size of a letter-sized piece of paper, and maybe just over an inch thick when closed. So it really wins for great form and design. It had made me feel that I do NOT want a mini or micro PC. Anything smaller than this is probably really annoying for typing and trying to read words on a screen.
I think right now, it's a tie. I have to see how a movie looks on the Lenovo, but we know it's not a media machine the way they sell the HP laptop to be. The HP even has quick keys on it for media functions. Compare that to the Lenovo having quick keys built in for functionality and more business style things. I'd rather travel with the Lenovo, though I may have to stay close to electricity or get more external batteries.
Now that being said, I probably could have liked the $500 version of the smaller Lenovo without the touch screen if I wanted a compact, lighter, smaller, nearly mini PC. You don't have to spend $2500. My $2500 was already spent, so in replacing the bad laptop, I just decided to get something really unlike the HP. If I had that $2500 back in my pocket, I could have bought 4 laptops. :)
So I will keep using the Lenovo every day for now to see how it goes, especially once I get the extra RAM. I tend to be function over form, but I need to make sure that the Lenovo's function is excellent. I need to be impressed by that, especially after a bump in the road with a lemon.
I just had an issue trying to connect my Windows Mobile phone with my new laptop, which is Windows Vista Business. I had different but weird issues under Windows Vista Ultimate on my other laptop.
The problem this time was that I plugged in my mobile phone, which is an HTC Mogul aka the 6800 for Sprint, and for some wacky reason, Vista saw the device as an MP3 player. It only wanted to sync it with Windows Media Player. It kept telling me it was a media device. It was frustrating.
I searched and couldn't find an answer. Once I had a stinky interaction trying to get support from Microsoft, I ended up in a Google search that dumped me into forums.microsoft.com. So here is the answer:
That is the answer to any problem you are having with Vista and Windows Mobile phones evidently. :) You have to reinstall the Windows Mobile Device Center aka WMDC, and THEN your computer is ready to see your phone as a phone.
Whew! It's working now. I'm mucho happy. From time to time, I've put Windows Mobile Phone solutions here, and I get emails nearly weekly from people who stumble on my solutions when searching. I hope I've been able to help more people!
Free Webinar on eBay's Changes, What They Made Public This Week, and What To Do About It!
The
headline above says it all! This is just a quick email to let everybody
know we're holding a webinar on Friday. eBay is publicly announcing
some things on Thursday, and as they released it as a webinar just for
Titanium and Diamond PowerSellers, not everybody will get the news.
We want to make sure you know!
Come hear what's going on, and what we think you should be doing about it!
https://www1.gotomeeting.com/register/486538658
Also,
to stay on top of eBay's changes, check out our new site JUST about
eBay's changes... we will be updating it just about daily.
http://community.rocketplace.com.
We know that problems for eBay sellers in 2008 have come in two main flavours: not know what the heck eBay has changed, and not knowing what to do about those changes (and when!). We now present the solution. http://community.rocketplace.com
Our new website called RocketPlace Community (RPC) is a Ning.com website that allows people to join our "community" and interact with each other. We have discussion forums, webinars, podcasts, news feeds, and more. Information and columns will come from experts. Tired of discussion forums filled with angry villagers with torches who never answer your question or put you down for even asking it? We're not allowing that crap here. If you need help, you will get help, and anybody looking to just be negative and grumpy can go away.
We will be staying on top of every eBay announcement, development, and change, even including the small tweaks eBay has been making to what does well inside Best Match. Hey, without knowing what the Spotlight Strategies (strategies du jour) are, how can you keep that high position in Best Match!
RPC has some content that's open to the public, and then there are discussions, recurring columns, events, and more that are for VIP members only. You can learn how to become a VIP on our "membership" page.
Here is a video to get you more acquainted with what is on the RPC site. This video was shot the day after it was launched, so just know that we are adding content just about every day. We know the site's no good to you unless it's current, and questions are being answered daily.
Do you Twitter? Well I live on it. I use it more than Facebook at this point. Read it more than blogs.
Pierre Omidyar, Founder of eBay (despite what John McCain says), tweets from time to time, and I'm following him. Recently, an eBay seller tweeted "at" him with, "Don't you feel ANY responsibility to fix
things/make them right - Largest shareholder & COB, yes? I thought
you would care more."
Lots of us have been tweeting at Pierre lately, hoping he's doing something. Some more strongly worded than others. This time, Pierre tweeted back:
Pierre cares, and I believe that. He is working with good people to make things better. I believe that. Pierre should have started earlier, hey I agree with that. But sometimes the kettle has to whistle like mad and all the water boil off until someone remembers to take it off the stove and turn off the burner. Takes time? I'm sure it does. There is a lot to fix, undo, and improve here.
I still believe in eBay. It's been a stinky year on this planet, but eBay can improve things. Some damage won't be undone. But with Pierre working on this, I have new hope. Starting recently is better than nothing being done.
eBay cares, and Pierre cares. There are people who care and are listening. I know it's hard now for eBay sellers, but there is a light at the end of the tunnel, and it's NOT an oncoming train. :)
I still offer my help to Pierre, eBay, and anybody who wants my unique point of view on things.
I love this Ultramotor A2B hybrid electric bike. Pedal or scoot for up to 20 miles on one battery charge. You don't need a license, registration, or insurance since this is legally a bicycle.
I'm totally getting one.
Oh this one is SILVER despite the pictures I took of other ones in the shop.
I recently saw that AuctionBytes was asking readers who they would want as eBay CEO if what's been going on this year at eBay meant a change of the guard.
Well, I just want to put everybody's minds at ease, and let you know that should this position open at any time, I would make myself available to take this job. As we're knee-deep in Presidential campaigning, here would be my promises (except unlike Pres campaigns, I'd keep them :) ).
If the Electoral College chooses me as your next eBay CEO...
We'll get to work on an As Was eBay listing template for everybody who wants one. Considering that our average client sees their eBay sales go up 15%, DSRs up, stupid questions down, more Store traffic, higher prices, and faster sales within days of using our work, every eBay seller should have this available to him or her for free. As CEO of eBay, I need to make sure that every serious seller has ALL the tools he or she needs to be long-term successful.
I promise to not become Amazon Junior or more of Half.com. I will make sure that eBay innovates, as it always has, and stays a true eCommerce leader.
I would reduce FVFs, as you already know, to make eBay more attractive than other platforms charging similar percentages.
I will run national TV ads aimed at buyers, and I will run GOOD ads... not ads that make eBay shoppers look like insane, obsessed clock collectors. Shoppers are regular people getting necessities and fun things, and I want to remind them that in this economy, eBay is probably THE best place on the planet to do your shopping.
I will make a DSR of 4 a good rating. Nobody should be punished for getting a mark buyers are told is a good mark. You probably never grounded your kid for getting an 80 on a test.
I will make sure that my selling population understands what's going on. Nobody should be surprised by being hidden in search or getting suspended. People need better communication to know what is going on, when, and how eBay expects you to react.
I will re-hire the Community department because eBay needs a great public face of people we like and trust. If fat has to be cut, I'll look at middle management and Vice Presidents.
You're going to get something fresh. I've never worked in the corporate world. I spend my life innovating and making people happy. I do a lot of eBay and online shopping, so I understand the shopper. And with my company, As Was, we have made sellers better, stronger, happier, and more profitable, even in bad times. I've run my own company since I'm 23, so I understand what the eBay entrepreneur lives through, 7 days a week.
I can pick up where Meg forgot she was going. Meg moved things forward, and then got really nostalgic about how far she moved things forward, and didn't change enough or fix problems. That left John a HUGE pile of things to fix, and we've ended up with a year that reflects that.
I will do things that make sense. I won't fire people, buy a company, and take out a loan in the same week because hey, that can look a little weird. That can chip away at confidence, and eBay needs that confidence from buyers and sellers.
I will make sure that new ideas are multidimensionally tested before you see these ideas. For example, I won't just test "current way" vs. "new idea." I would test "current way" vs. "new idea" vs. 3 variations of the new idea. Sometimes, the new idea isn't the best way, and just because it may test better than the old way doesn't mean the idea can't be improved!
I will connect better with third-party companies. So many of you rely on Vendio, ChannelAdvisor, and others for small tools or major enterprise systems. I'll make sure the companies you rely on are strong, staying up to date, and helping us make the marketplace stronger and easier.
eBay will save lots of money. I'm happy to take a salary of $350,000 per year plus incentive-based bonuses. And please cover moving costs. :)
And there you go. I know that eBay can get past this tough year. I'm happy to steer the ship if anybody wants the Deb version. :) Did I mention that Pierre and I went to the same uni around the same time? He graduated in 1988; I started there in 1989. I double-majored in pre-med and music, but then dropped pre-med. He has a degree in computer science. See? You don't need an MBA or fancy corporate experience to enact great ideas. :)
