Suceeding inspite of the economy in 2009

Ok, I'm kind of lucky because I don't have to provide ALL the support from my family. BUT I do have to provide half. The half I used to provide by working 8 - 7 in a corporate office for a totally nasty man. For the three years that I've been fulltime on ebay and other venues, it's not been so much of a problem. For the last 3 months? more so.

That's why, for 2009 I've made some plans and outlined some methods for me to try. Now, my big failing is not in organization. It's more in the consistency of the follow thru. I will follow thru initially but then I get bogged down in the minutae of life and next thing I know, it's December 31st again.

So, my first step was to buy Danna Crawford's Powerselling Mom Calendar. She has a DVD/Cd that's about 30 min in length where she explains how she developed this calendar and how she uses it. So, even at $30 I figured "it can't hurt". So I bought one.

And I love it. It's got nice big blocks for each day to write notes in or schedule things in. And it's go, on the top half where there is usually pretty sunset, a cute kitten or some crazy cartoon, Danna had put some motivational phrases on one side and alist of things that need working on on the right side.

And at the top, linkes for goals. $$ on ebay , Other $$ etc. Dream goals and monthly goals. And in the middle a large open space where can stick post-its or write letters to yourself.

Want one for your ownself? On ebay go to ASKDANNA and nab one!! And if you don't like ebay/paypal I'll post a link down there for Amazon.

I've started mine for 2009. My first goal for this year is $5,000 a month in sales (well that's the "dream goal". I've routinely sold around $3,000 a month for the last 3 years. Sometimes more, sometimes less but normally at least $3,000. So I'm looking to increase my sales by 50% this month. To do that, I need to move some stuff out of the store, put some stuff on ebay that hasn't been listed and encourage people to buy buy buy!

And I'm already looking ahead. You make your money when you buy your merchandise by getting the best price. And right now I'm looking ahead to Valentine's Day, Easter and Mother's day. That merchandise needs to be on your website and in your ebay/amazon/bonanzle store 30-45 days ahead of time. So it's time to gear up now for Valentine's day.

Among other things, I have to get better at using the ebay approved "store marketing newsletter.". And that is where I'm off to now. The link to Danna's calendar on Amazon is on the right side on the carousel or it's ASIN number: B001OHV3UO

Online Business Success Radio

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/bcherkowsky/blog/2009/01

We're gonna talk blogging on blogtalkradio.com!

Well, we had so much fun on Tuesday, Kat and I, that Louise and I are gonna try it on Friday, 12/26 at 2 PM EST- Talk to the Powersellers! We're going to interview Danna Crawford, CEO of PowersellingMom.com about Blogging!

Everything you ever wanted to know about how to blog, where to blog and what to blog about!



So come join up on Friday and if you have blogging questions, you can call in during the show and Ask Danna yourself!

The Soap Opera Comes to Talkshoe Radio!! Today!!

The folks from my yahoo group are going to try to have a talk radio show today - 1 PM EST (12-23) on talkshoe.com

WHAT are you doing at 1 PM on Tuesdays?? Come talk with us about selling online. We're on ebay, amazon, bonanzle and a few other places so come ask us your questions and suggest your answers to our questions...and just generally chat and learn from each other for 60 little minutes.

http://www.talkshoe.com/talkshoe/web/talkCast.jsp?masterId=29246&cmd=tc

Are you tearing your hair out trying to get your child to read?

I did too. Mine is in his 20's now. And he reads. I don't know exactly what turned the trick. It might ahve been the comic books he started reading when he was about 12. It might have been the desire to read the "whole" story behind some of his favorite horror movies or the Japanese Anime he came to enjoy as a teenager. I really don't care what it was. Something got him reading and I rejoice as my husband and I are life-long readers and book collectors. Now he not only reads, he is writing about what he read this year. (ssssssssssh do not tell him I showed you this. He'd probably never forgive me. But because I read this and enjoyed his analysis of the books he read, I thought you might like to check them out too!

So, Forthwith, here is his Squidoo lens on his 2008 reading list. (Don't miss WRATH of the Thunder Lizards which is his other squidoo lens)

http://www.squidoo.com/xml/syndicate_lens/Cherkowskys08readinglist

(or it's linked in the right side top box!) Check it out.

Blogging your products

Well I'm so behind on everything that I almost put adding to this blog off. BUT,...Steve Lindhorst sent me a new issue of his The MultiChannel Seller Newsletter and in it, Steve said "BLOG" is a verb. BLOG about your products. Or words to that effect.

So, here I am. This week, I'm trying to finish listing a grouping of Nancy Drew books we bought last year. Problem was, there were a lot of double and triple copies of the same volume. So 3 of The Mystery of the Moss-Covered Mansion. All hardback 1940's issues with dust jackets and in reasonably good shape. So rather than dilute the market by putting all three up at the same time, I listed one. And in some cases I actually remembered to list the second copy. Not often enough though so now I still have 2 copies. And there fore, this time I'm just listing them all and letting the bids fly where they may.

Are you a Nancy Drew collector? Girls' Series books are hotly collected still. Even in this economy. But you need Farrah's Guide which is a very specialized and rather hard to find book. My husband bought several years ago when we found several other series of girls books so all of the ones that I've listed this week or will list next wee are marked as to which of the 10 million variatons they are. (hey he has to do something to earn his spending money! ) To see them, click here:

And, because like the rest of you, my family expects Christmas presents to be real gifts and not socks or underwear, I am also listing a whole lot of Roseville, Weller and Royal Copenhagen as well B&G Christmas Plates . So you will see those there also.

Come on in and browse at least. And if you'd like a copy of my new newsletter, please sign up here:

Depression Glass Warehouse Collectibles Newsletter

Ok, gotta go list. List more, Sell more!

C-ya tomorrow!

Beth

Blogging is like work - DUH!

My sister runs a company (her own small startup) that provides services to senior citizens and their caretakers. She's paying $175 a month for 4 posts a month to be written. She provides the blogger with material and that person writes her blog. AND??? And she's happy paying out money. Me? As hard as it is to blog, I'd rather do it myself, thank you.

So I sat down the other day and wrote this whole draft about how Santa Claus, who used to shop on eBay according to Marsha Collier, is now shopping on Bonanzle (according to me). And I say that because? Because I've sold 4 things since opening there, without really doing a darn thing.

I pushed my eBay listings over. Was taking my sweet time editing them and people started buying. WOW! So I signed up for Googlecheckout. Guess what? I love it!

But back to that original post about Santa shopping at Bonanzle. I was just about done and...(no the computer didn't crash. ! ) I hit the wrong stinking key and deleted the whole darn thing!

TADA! the wonders of modern technology! At least in a typewriter, I'd have had typos but I'd still have a paper copy.

And the creative spark that was burning during that "episode" of my blogging life is dead now. Santa may still be over at Bonanzle shopping his fool boots off, but my brain has moved on and not to more interesting topics. Today, my brain is consumed with "WHY can't I list as many items per day as I used to??"

I'll have an answer for that on Friday. See me then. (After all, it's my consuming project for the day...to figure it out! and reverse the trend!)