Hello my friends. I was amazed to discover this week the number of eBay sellers that did not know about these boxes provided by the United States Postal Service. I decided to get over here to PEC and make this available for all readers. I know everyone is going through "busy times" right now with the holidays, including myself. I will pop in now and then and leave some short blogs with valuable information as we count down to the New Year! Website reads: Sell it on eBay. Ship it with U.S. Postal Service®. eBay and the U.S. Postal Service are happy to offer you FREE co-branded shipping boxes for Priority Mail® and Priority Mail Flat Rate Service. These boxes will be delivered directly to your home at no cost to you. I've been order...

On a recent trip to the movie theater my eyes were opened up to just how popular mobile technology really is. I’ve read the studies and the articles and I know that I should start thinking about making my site "mobile ready" but it hadn’t really hit me until I took my kids to the movies on a Friday night. It was opening night and the theater was packed. We arrived early so we could be sure to get our candy and get good seats. As we waited for the movie to start I was people watching, mainly a large group of teenagers. I couldn’t believe it. Each and every one of them had a phone in their hand and they were madly texting each other and laughing. They weren’t having conversations by talking, they were texting and they were all stand...

I have been told that I sound like I am about 12 years old on the phone. This can be a problem with some people who don’t want to take me serious as the CEO of my company. The reason I bring this up is because of what just happened to me. I just got off the phone with a sales representative that was hoping to sell me some advertising space on a very well known website. While talking to her she asked me if I needed help with the spelling of the website she was selling. Let’s just say this is a household name that every woman in America knows, not to mention the spelling isn’t tricky. She later goes on to tell me that she feels she should educate me on a few things, and goes on in a very condescending tone about what she felt I neede...

I've worked in this industry for some time now and one of the phenomenons I'll never quite understand is the excitement over Black Friday and Cyber Monday. Now I understand that Black Friday is the official kickoff to the holiday season but what I don't understand is the seemingly uncontrollable urge to give the store away in the form of "doorbusters". What's more, I really question whether or not this strategy is even remotely effective online. The basic concept is simple enough (and is as old as dirt) - get people to come in for the "special offer" and then have your salespeople and your merchandisers work their magic, getting customers to add on to their purchase. The problem as I see it is that online shopping is still very much ...

A question I get a lot is how I got started in E-Commerce and why I didn’t start with a brick and mortar store. We still don’t have a brick and mortar store and I honestly don’t see us investing in one for quite some time. We started out by selling our candles at local craft shows. Not to brag but we were always one of the most popular booths at these shows. We would typically sell out hours before the close of the show. Soon customers were calling us after the shows and asking for more candles, and some were asking if they could use our candles as wedding favors. At our last show we introduced more wedding favors and the crowds went crazy! That is how our online store began. I knew that if we could get our products out there we ...

An eBay group called: eBay Selling Tips has launched their first charity event called “Ornaments for Charity “Ornaments for Charity” was launched on November 1 by the eBay selling tips group. This amazing cause will run through November 30th. eBay buyers and sellers are uniting together to help a nonprofit called: Faith Mission, located in Brenham TX. Faith Mission has been helping the victims from Hurricane Ike in addition to many other tasks. Including: Homeless Shelter - Each month a daily average of 40 to 50 people are housed in the dorms for men, women, and families. Approximately 85% of the shelter residents are considered local. Food - Approximately 200 families per month receive food assistance through the Mission. The food...

It is important to me that I have strong relationships with my suppliers especially our drop ship suppliers. I feel it is important to know the people and the company that is representing my company to my customers. A few weeks ago one of my suppliers started having trouble with follow through. Many orders were not shipping, orders were getting lost or they were shipping the incorrect items. I understand that mistakes happen but when it started happening daily I knew I needed to take action. This is when a strong relationship pays off. I knew who to call and talk to in order to get this straightened out. I am one of those people that is usually nice to everyone. Not that day. (Let’s just say you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry...

It seems like every month there's some new payment method that comes online. Layaway, deferred billing, eChecks, not to mention the different checkout tools like Google Checkout and Paypal. So when do you say "enough is enough" and stop adding payment methods? There are times when it pays to be an early adopter, but when it comes to payment methods, we've chosen to see where the dust settles. We offer the standard credit cards along with Paypal, eCheck and Bill Me Later. For our customers, these are the four most important payment methods. We looked at a number of the other alternative payment methods (including Google Checkout) but ultimately found that there was either not enough demand or too high of a price to justify install...

The last two days my Blackberry has been beeping like crazy, and right now I have an inbox of 150+ messages. Am I really that busy? No, not usually but I have had to take some time off to take care of my kids. Both are home sick with the crud that always goes around this time a year. Days off, sick days…this is not something you can really do with a home-based business. In the early years this was one of my major struggles. My office used to be the kitchen table. You really can’t get away from your work with a laptop in the kitchen! I soon realized I needed to move my “office”. My husband and I decided to make our guest room a dedicated office for me. This has by far been one of the best decisions we ever made! It is somewhat ea...

One of the hardest parts of successfully selling online is giving people a reason to come back. As we all know, you can only compete on price for so long before your profit margins completely dry up, so you need to create an emotional response. For PoolDawg, we achieve this by pushing our company's personality. We don't want to be seen as some faceless site that just sells the same pool cues at the same prices as everyone else. We're not big and we're not corporate, so the last thing we want is a site that "feels" like a faceless "big box" store. We want our customers to see that we have a real passion for our industry and the game of pool. We figured out early on that we can't physically be at every major pool event so we had to...

The other day I decided to indulge in a more expensive coffee for myself. I don’t do this often but for some reason I decided I needed a treat. I spent 10 minutes driving around in a circle trying to find a parking place at the local coffee shop. I finally got too frustrated and left opting for a different coffee shop down the street that offered a drive-thru and more parking. As I sat waiting for my Latte I started thinking about how my experience with getting coffee could relate to my site. If my customers can’t figure out how to checkout, or they can’t find the information they need, they will do the same thing I did. They will leave. I spent the remainder of my day going over my site with a fine tooth comb. With the holiday r...

“Twitter is a Tweet Tool!” Now say it 10 times as fast as you can. After you try that you will get the “fun” feeling that Twitter is. Twitter allows us to mix business with pleasure. The best way to describe twitter: Twitter is a social, real-time, LIVE, short messaging system. It alloys you to post a message, under 140 characters and send it out to all those that are following you. Those people can then read the message directly from their twitter home page. Many eBay members including staff, have joined in with the networking process. Staying up-to-date with trends and eBay happenings. Visit my twitter page at: Twitter.com/PowerSellingMom. Staying active in Twitter can help build a client base. Business owners can seek out custom...

October 3rd and 4th is the date of this powerful event to take place in Hays Kansas at Fort Hays State University,College of Business and Leadership. A 2 day eBay eCommerce Convention. Meet the experts eBay Expert Workshop Presenters Cindy Shebley, Certified Education Specialist Catalog photography * Marketing on eBay Website: Clover City Sells Sharon Ware: eBay Certified Business Consultant Stores Expert:Creating a Brand with eBay Stores Website: Dandelion Consulting Danna Crawford: Power Selling Mom Mission Fish/Giving Works expert 2008 eBay Hall Of Fame Winner Award winner Giving Works Website: Power Selling Mom CJ Jacinto:eBay Certified Education Specialist Packing/Shipping Paul Hedgecock: eBay Certified Education Speci...

We've all had it happen to us at one point or another. We do a search on our respective trademarked names and in the "sponsored listings" area we see ads for our competitors pop up. Depending on the power of your brand, this can range from mildly irritating to a significant loss of business. The question though is how to deal with this situation. As we all know, when it comes to keyword bidding, Google does not police what terms you bid on. As long as the trademarked term isn't in the ad itself, Google has no problems with displaying the ad. Google feels that if the ad is not related to the search, their quality based bidding formula will eventually filter out these ads and the problem will take care of itself. In Google's defense...

I was in an office supply store early this morning stocking up on the usual; you know ink cartridges, printer paper, etc. I walked by a stand and noticed a little blue book that caught my eye. It was a journal, the front cover said “Some People Dream of Success While Others Wake Up and Work Hard at It” – (Author Unknown). I immediately smiled and grabbed the journal. I am not much of a diary keeper, in fact writing this blog is very daunting for me. But something just compelled me to grab this journal. It is now sitting at my desk and I can’t stop reading the quote. A journal is typically a daily written record of experiences, observations, or even dreams. This journal will record the dreams I have for my business. But what use ...

I started our business because I wanted to be able to provide for my family and still be able to spend time at home with my kids. When my kids were born (we have twins) my husband and I struck a deal. When the kids start school I go back to work. This sounded great when they were newborns and Kindergarten sounded like it was hundreds of years away! The kids are now in First Grade and nothing prepared me for what life would be like juggling a growing business and a family. I am so happy that my business has grown into a full-time job and that I get to work from home but I struggle with finding a balance between the two. I also struggle a little with my identity as a mother and as a business owner. A few days ago my son told me that...

Last week we saw the official announcement and beta rollout of Google's new browser, Chrome. The first thing I wondered was whether or not I should care. After all, we already have two major browsers to deal with and there simply has never been broad support for three browser platforms. Then I reminded myself that this is Google we're talking about. With that in mind, I did a quick download and install to find that the Chrome browser is pretty slick and could very easily catch on. As an ecommerce site, we cannot afford to ignore Chrome from a browser compatibility perspective. Chrome will take market share from both IE and Firefox in a significant way over time. Doing a quick look at our stats, I found that since the Chrome launch...

The Presidential race is taking place at eBay 24/7. The polls are open and the votes change every day, hour and minute. With this type of election, everyone is a winner! Especially "The People." The people in this case are the eBay sellers and the eBay buyers. They are the winners because the sellers are selling items and the shoppers are finding the items they want. Both are winners in this election! A true win-win situation! The numbers as of September 8, 2008 at approximately 10:30 AM EST are: Listings: McCain - 3802 Obama - 7332 Keep in mind when you click on the numbers, they will be different totals than the numbers I have posted. They will be according to the current date and time that you are here viewing them. The ...

There is a powerful movement called: Stand Up To Cancer. This nonprofit organization has joined the force through MissionFish by entering into the system. Now, Stand Up To Cancer has been launched into the eBay Giving Works platform which allows this organization even more worldwide exposure. Everyone can find amazing auction and eBay store items supporting this cause People around eBay land and the world are Standing Up To Cancer, including myself. Did you know that 1 in 3 people will be affected by cancer? Did you also know that cancer takes 1 person every minute? Cancer is out of control. I lost my dad to rectal cancer in 2005. He was at the young of 61 and had just retired. This horrible disease has made my family and I very ma...

Recently my UPS driver asked me if I had an Account Rep with UPS. We have been so busy lately that I never even thought about this. We only ship about 10% of our inventory from our warehouse here in Colorado so I wasn’t sure how this would benefit us. My driver sent in a request for me and a few days later I was contacted by a UPS Rep. that had been assigned to my account. Well I soon found that having an Account Rep. is a huge asset to our business. First she looked into getting us a better incentive. She came back to me with a whole new rate plan. Last week our new incentives saved us quite a bit of money! She was able to negotiate new international rates with paperless invoices and set us up with UPS WorldShip, which is a much ...