My Auction Empires

I am writing this blog post on New Years Eve. For many 2008 has been a roller coster ride of a year. January 2008 started off like most New Years full of hope and full of promise.

Stock Markets around the world seemed in very good shape, Banking systems looked good, the housing market was doing ok, there were signs of it slowing down, but nothing real to worry about.

Life was Good.

In my business life I was learning a lot, I had just joined a fantastic Mentor group for my eBay and other online ventures. And boy were we put through our paces.

Janelle Elms and the OSI RockStars put me and the other people through our paces, we had home work , we had weekly training , but it was worth and I can say Thanks Janelle and the other Trainers at OSI RockStars, for you had vision, for our personal lives and our business lives, and we were taught lessons that would protect our businesses and set us up ready for what was to happen later in 2008.

Well I and many others can stand here and Say after well over 250 hours and audio and webinars, and fantastic forums, we are all still here and set ready for what ever 2009 has for us.

And I can tell you OSI RockStars has some great lessons lined up for us in January.

So please if you do nothing else this year take a look at this great resource and I promise you, you will not be let down.

Well back to 2008 – As we draw to a close, many banks have either gone or have joined up, or have been helped out by their countries goverements.

Here in the UK, we hear news that Woolworth’s is no longer to be seen, their website is down, and their shops are closing. I was in my Local branch the other day and they were selling off everything in the shop……… Yes everything Shelves, Tills, Carpets, fittings the lot, (I did try and by one of the cashiers but she was too expensive LOL) No joking apart it is a sad day for all those who work there.

Again you read in the papers that Adams Childrens clothing store are in problems.

What has gone wrong……………. Well many things have happened around the world to make these major companies and groups go.

But as people who work from home, we do not have the massive overheads as these shops have, we do not have all the money on wages to pay out.
As long as we keep our heads down, keep costings low, and list wisely, then we will get through the next few months, and I hope this time next year, although we may have some sad stories to tell we will come through this time and be much stronger and better business people.

Here is wishing everyone a Happy New Year and see you in 2009.

Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires.

eBay Stores

When you go to eBay and take a look around you will see all the different                eBay stores, some with very little in and some with hundreds of items in. These eBay Stores are run by small sellers right through to major businesses out there that are house hold names.

But did you know something about ebay Stores ?  99% are set up wrong. Yes can you imagine that 99% of ebay stores are set up in the wrong way. Now because the eBay stores are set up in the wrong way people and businesses are losing money time and time again.

Although eBay has a good user guide on setting up your ebay store it often misses points out, up until now we all had to make do, that was until Janelle Elms (Janelle is an eBay educator, has travelled with ebay univeristy, and has wriiten many books on eBay, and she is also the founder of OSI RockStars).

Janelle has come up with one of the best eBay store cd-rom sets ever. You see her teach how to set up eBay stores, you also see her take an eBay store and explain to the owner what is right, what is wrong and why it is wrong and how to improve thier eBay store.

Now I have taken this course, and I am going to be honest with you, sorry Janelle, but you know me. Janelle’s eBay store is the best, but, you will need to take action on what you hear and learn. It will take you time, you will need to work at the improvements on your eBay store. You need to plan, and put into action all you have learnt, but the end result will be that your eBay Store will be in the top 1% of eBay Stores.

Another tool bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

ebay Research

eBay Research is one of the most popular questions that anyone who teaches ebay is asked on a regular basis.

The questions they ask can be as simple as why do we have to do eBay Research , how do you do eBay research and so on.

Now in simple terms you can just look at ebay and see what is selling and then go and find out a supplier and yes that can work.

Another way to do your eBay Research is to see what the currant trends are with family and friends and more important your teenage children as they always know whats hot and whats in.

Now all the above and many other ways do work they are often have a few pit falls.

A product I use and many of the other successful eBay sellers use day in and day out is a piece of software that is web based for our                        eBay Research is called TeraPeak.

Terapeak gives you data on what has sold on eBay over the last 90 days with over 500 million closed listings so you will never be at a lost on does your product sell or not.

Once you have bought into Terapeak either on a monthly package or the very popular yearly package you get access not only to the above eBay data, but also things like trends, whats hot on ebay, you get to see things like sell through rates and yes some products do have a 100% sell through rate.

You also can use TeraPeak for your eBay Research to see what are the best days and the best times to sell your products.

And another cool feature of  TeraPeak you can even see what the sell through rates of a seller are.

So I can highly recomend TeraPeak as your eBay Research tool, and you can if you wish cancel at anytime and if you have bought the yearly package you get a refund of the remaning months you have left.

But if I am honest and you do regular eBay research then you will never want to be without Terapeak.

So what are you waiting for? Click on the banner below and start to see how powerful TeraPeak is in your eBay Research.

Another idea bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires.

Manage Your Time

Following on from my last post, I am carrying on the theme on how to Manage Your Time. I think for those of us who work from home, how to Manage Your Time is often hard, and we wake up in the morning saying today we will not waste our time, but at bed time sadly most of us have not be able to manage Our Time, and another day has gone and many hours have been wasted.

Each of us wakes up each day with the same hours in our day, so why do some of us Manage Our Time and others are not able to.

So here is my take on how to Manage Your Time.

Manage Your Time 1 – The night before, make a list of things that need to be done. It does not mean everything will get done the next day, but it’s on your list and because you have written it down and have done it the night before your brain is already working on it while you sleep. When you have written it, it is best to number each item from the most important to the least important. A tip I have picked up and find that it works, write your list on yellow paper.

Manage Your Time 2 – Once you have woken up (or turn on your computer) get your play time out of the way while you’re having your morning drink. For example check emails, check your social networks, check web stats. That way you are not tempted to stop your work and think I wonder what my stats are etc. I would suggest that you allow yourself around an hour each day for this.

Manage Your Time 3 – Now get ready as it is time to get ready to work. Get your list out and start with the most important item first and work down the list.

Manage Your Time – 4 I would suggest every hour give your self a small break of around 5 minutes. Take a walk around, make a drink, nip to the loo. You work at home and can do what you like, but keep it to only 5 minutes.
Manage Your Time – 5 Now this may sound funny and may not work for you, but remember you are boss and the idea is go to sleep for a few hours during your day. When you wake up you will have energy, and be ready to take on the world again. But only do an hour or two at the most.

One of the things about working from home is that the fact that we do not have to work a set number of hours. If we live alone we can work as many as hours as we need or want. Some people still think they have to work from 9 – 5. This is not the case. Yes at time when you are working with a client or need to see some one then you have to keep to a tight time schedule.

But for normal work at home people we can space our time out, work a few hours in the morning, then a nap, then afternoon work, then a break and then work into the evening.

So you can space your day out. Over time you will find out what works for you and your business.

Also working from home and working online allows you to be flexible where you work, if you have a laptop take it with you and you can work at places such as Starbucks or the park.

Staying Focused

 

Another question that I am asked when teaching online material to a class or to a one to one basis how easy is it to be able in staying focused ? Now hands in the air, and if I am honest staying focused was one of my big problems, but after listening to people, reading books and finding the time to learn how on learning how to stay focused, I have found some useful tips that I would like to share.

If you really want to learn about staying focused, it is going to take time, and you will need to learn from past mistakes on what works for you and what does not work for you.

Staying Focused Point 1 – Set yourself some time (best time is a Sunday evening I have found), and take out a sheet of paper and at the Top write “ToDo List for what week it is.

Staying Focused Point 2 – I have four main blogs, so I put that I need to blog 3 times a week for each blog, so let’s say that I am talking about My Auction Empires I would put – Blog MAE, Blog MAE, Blog MAE. and then rpeat for my other blogs.  Now if you have time and can blog more good that is a bonus, and I do and try and do it more often.

Staying Focused Point 3 – List XXX items to ebay

Staying Focused Point 4 – List XXX items to Amazon

Staying Focused Point 5 – Visit my favorite forums and do some postings

Staying Focused Point 6 – Write an article (or you could say write xyz number)

Staying Focused Point 7 – Check Squidoo lens

Staying FocusedS Point 8 – Check Hub Pages

Staying Focused Point 9 – What ever else you need to do for your business.

Staying Focused Point 10 – Post and Packing

Now with all the above, you need to set yourself a time this is very important when you get onto the forums and I suggest no more than an hour. Now depending on if you do this full time or part time you will need to work out the times to suit uoir own needs. Some you may do once a week and others more often, again each person and buisness is very different.

On another sheet, you will put Monthly To Do

Here you can put :

Accounts

Paying fees

Squidoo tidy up

Hub Pages tidy Up

Etc

Etc

By following the above, I hope it will help you on the journey of staying focused and not waste time on your business. Please leave me thoughts and ideas on the above as it is good to learn from each other.

Another idea, from Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires.