I wish I could say that I came up with idea…………………….. but I cannot a young man called Morgan did, and as they say the rest is history. He used some public domain pictures and words, and showed the online video to a few friends at his church including his pastor, but asked them to tell no one.  A few weks passed and late one night he got a call from his free hosting company to ask him what he was up to as his little video had crashed their servers.

He went back to his little video and saw over 100,000 people had viewed it, his jaw dropped………………………………..  He paid the small monthly payment to the hosting company, made the webpage look smart and added a name capture page.

The rest is history sit back watch and enjoy a true viral video.

How To Add An Ezine
Articles Widget To Your Site

Following in on our How To series a few people have asked me how to add an ezine article widget to there website. Well I could do an article with screen shots of each process……………….. But then I tough Ezine Articles have done a short how to video so I went along to YouTube and “borrowed” it for you.

I think you will find this great little video very helpful and you can stop and start the video as you complete each step.

How To Use Twitter

Well it is Saturday and Saturday at My Auction Empires is How To Day, and the How To for today is Twitter.

Twitter is a what is known as a Micro Blog and allows you to use 140 characters to tell your followers what you are up to.  Twitter can be up dated from your computer or from your mobile phone.

So if you are not yet part of Twitter then pop along to http://www.twitter.com and you will see a screen like this.

Now if you are a member sign in as normal, but if you are new click on the green “get started – Join” button at the bottom. You will then be taken to a screen like this

Just follow along and fill out the boxes. Now before you pick a user name think what you are going to be using it for. You are allowed to have multiple accounts by the way, but also remember that you need to keep them up to date, so my advice is have a main one and then some sun ones when you want to test some things.

Once you have signed up you will see a page like this :

This is where you can follow people and see who is following you. In future blog posts I will cover how you can use it to drive traffic and make sales on your sites.
But some advice, give content at all times and make a few pitches as well and your followers will love.

A great book to help you understand the Power of Twitter is called Twitter Power by Joel Comm my advice is buy this book today and start to read and put into action what Joel tells you.

Using Correct Words When Listing

In this weeks blog post we are going to talk about how to use the correct words when we list an item. The words or phrases can be used when listing on Amazon and eBay and most other e-commerce platforms.

So what the the different words and phrases mean ?

1) Mint = Brand new untouched just as it came out of the factory. Sometimes you see it shortened to MT.  Some other words and phrases you will see on eBay are :

MIB  (No not Men In Black) but Mint in Box

MISB = Mint In Sealed Box

MOC = Mint On Card

MIP = Mint in Package

2)  Near Mint = This is like mint, but the item or package has some very slight marks on it. Again you will see some of the above things used as well with near mint such as NMIB – Near Mint In Box.

3) Very Fine – This is used when you cannot list it as Mint or Near Mint. often you will see it lists as NF – Near Fine.

4) Fine – Again the item has some pitfalls with it and does not allow you to list it with any of the above words and phrases.

5) Very Good – We are now coming onto items that have some large faults, or marks on the item and or box, but still it is a very good item in very good condition, but look out.  Listed as VG

6) Good – The item is now showing some big faults, and major marks or parts missing or not working. Listed as GD

7) Fair – The item now could have markings that make it look used and not pretty, and could result in you not being happy with the purchase, or the person buying from you not happy.
But as with all things depends on what market you are selling in Fair could be very good as the person buying is not expecting brand new.

Poor – again this could mean trouble as the item may be broken, damaged or not pretty at all. But as with fair, poor could be ok for some people if it works and is what you expect.

When ever you are listing, be honest with people, and tell them the truth. Do not say if it is mint, if it is near mint and so on. When I list I always tend to under sell my item and tend to go down to the next one.
When you do this the buyer is always happy as if you listed it as Near Mint, and when they got it it was Mint they will be well pleased.

Hope this has helped you to understand How To use the correct words when listing.

If you sell online there will be times when a picture just does not work for your item. The best way to show off the item you are selling is to take a scan of it.

Scans work really well for paper products and some other flat objects.
Also if you sell small items like jewellery then a scanned image will work very well for this and show your item off a lot better.

Now I am going to be honest here with you it is going to take you some time, but if you put the time and effort in now, you will get good results with your auctions and buy it nows.
But remember the same goes for anything if you are selling poor items then you will either not sell items or get alow price.

But think postive we are talking paper items here and people will pay over the odds at times. The main think is when you list your items be very honest and under sell all the time, if there is a rip or small mark tell the people, never ever clean up your image.

Step 1 – get all the items you want to scan ready in a pile.

Step 2 – Go to where you store your images on your computer and create a new folder and call it scanned images.

Step 3 – Take yoor first item and place it on your scanner.

Step 4 – Scan away, once you have scanned just check it looks ok and then click save as. Now call it a name that means something to you, so that you can find it staight away when you start to list.

Step 5 – You need to save it as a jpeg file.

Step 6 – Rinse and repeat, and work your way through the items.

Step 7 – Once you have finished, everything will be ready to start listing.

Step 8 – Do it today, do not put it off, for you could be throwing money away, but not selling those small and paper items.
You will have noticed that I have not mentioned how to scan, this is because each scanner is different, if you need help pop along to http://www.youtube.com and do a search for the scanner that you use, and you will find some videos to help you along.

As for software I use Adobe Photoshop Elements 7 I find this simple but very powerful.

How To Use Marketing Calenders

As your business grows, you will start to need to take a serious look at how you market you growing buisness and in some cases you growing businesses. If you are like me, I guess you just thought about about doing it and did it, and the word marketing calender did not cross your mind.

That will work but after a bit you may forget what you should be doing on a day or a week, or month, so use a Marketing Calender.

Now your marketing calender could be written in a dairy, a sheet of paper, a filofax etc. I have choosen to do mine on Google Calanders. If yuo do this you put it down as an all day event so that it appears at the of each day.

For my blog I have split the week up into six days – a blog post for each day, and this allows me a sunday as a catch up day – (Which I will need this week as I have had several meetings outside of my home office that took up 16 hours a day)

Does this mean I will stick to each days themes – YES this helps me and my customers.

Does it mean I cannot blog about other things – NO of course I can add other posts as and when the need arises.

Also on the Marketing Calender will be important dates that need a special blog posting. Also when I need to write that review, that ezine article.

Once you have worked on it and stick to it, you will wonder how you ever managed without one.

Hope this has helped you. Once I have mastered the art of screen capture video I will do a video and post it to show how you can set up a Marketing Calender in Google Calenders.

Another How To resource bought to you by Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires

How To Make A Web Button

Today I want to talk about a popular topic “How To Make A Web Button“  Why is How To Make A Web Button so popular,  well with the increase of blogs, HubPages and Squidoo lenes the need to make quick simple Web Buttons is a must nowadays.

Now I could give you a step by step list with screen captures, and take you from stage one through to the last stage, but then I thought why not do a video, and then it struck me a good friend of mine and fellow online seller Cindy Shebley has created a great video thats shows you all the steps in a clear way

The above video will show you in a clear to understand way and at the end you will be making Web Button in a few minutes. Another why to use this “How To Make A Web Button” is to keep stopping it do the stage, then move on to the next stage. Cindy Shebley is a great teacher and presents in an easy to understand way. To learn more about how Cindy and her team can help you in your business pop a long to www.Websellerscircle.com

Hope you find this video on How To Make A Web Button useful for your business.

Save Money When Brain Storming.

Saturdays here at My Auction Empires are now known as ” How To ” days. Each Saturday I will try and tell and later show you how to do something that will either save you time, money, or just show you how to make some extra money. And sometimes it might be tell you how to cook some cool dish who knows. But come back each saturday and you will find out what the ” How to ” is

So lets get going this weeks How To. Today I want to show you how you can save time and also get better brain storming time, something all business owners and leaders need and want.

I guess like many people when you are brainstorming an idea you will often pop down to your local magazine seller and see what magazines there are, and also buy a range of them.
Next step will be buy a few books or DVD’s to see what other people are doing. All this adds up.
Next you come home and spend some quiet time locked away seeing what is what. Now if you are doing this often the bills soon add up.

How about if I was to tell you, you can do all the above and much more for zero cost. Yes that is right zero cost to you.

How I can hear you all shout, well I am going to tell you How To, go to your local library there you can read magazines by the load and also you can read back dated ones this is very helpful to see which adverts keep running.

Also at the libary you can hire DVD’s books etc again at no cost to you, and you can bring these home with you.

Another thing with the Library you have access to fast broadband, and it is quiet in there to this allows you to brainstorm very well.

Well I hope and trust this How To lesson has helped you, and come back next saturday for the next how to.

Happy Selling

Andrew Milburn and My Auction Empires