| The Online Seller | Vol. 2, Issue 24 |
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Expert tips and advice for protecting your computer—and your identity
by Janelle Elms
I recently had the honor of seeing my dear friend Michael Kaiser. He and I used to tour together for eBay University, and he also wrote the very first eBay-sanctioned book, "The Official eBay Guide," with input from none other than Pierre Omidyar, eBay's founder and chairman!These days, Kaiser's executive director of the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) in Washington, D.C. (SC Magazine has just named him one of 2009's information security luminaries). I caught up with him while he was in town for some big, head honcho meet-up. Nice that he doesn't forget about us little people—lol. Read story.
Resist Buying When You Should Be Selling
7 tips to help you control the impulse to spend
by Dennis L. Prince
Helping Sellers Reach New Heights
Terapeak provides data eBay sellers can put to practical use.
by Brad and Debra Schepp
Giving Works Spreads the Wealth
eBay program offers benefits for charities and sellers.
A Taxing Issue
Should you collect taxes for sales in your AucCom Store?
View more Articles.
Free Scrolling Gallery. Give visitors to your listings a glimpse of other items you have for sale. Auctiva's free scrolling gallery is a highly effective cross-promotional tool that invites buyers to enter your Auctiva Store and browse everything you have listed on eBay. As a result, you can generate more visits, more bids—more sales!
News Stories
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Last-minute gifts mean last-minute buyers.
While some online sellers may think it's too late in the holiday season to post items for sale, merchants still have time to woo buyers, according to experts. Read story.
eBay, Craigslist Trade Slings in Court
Key execs' testimony, so far, reads like a 'he said, she said.'
eBay Makes Up to Affiliates
Company will reimburse for losses due to search outage.
A New Way to Take Plastic
Square aims to make mobile commerce ubiquitous.
View all News Stories.
Unique Items Online
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Need to find the perfect Christmas gift for the "everyman" in your life? There's no better way to say "you're average" than with a black-velvet painting of Joe the Plumber, the forgotten icon of mediocrity from the 2008 U.S. presidential campaign. Hey, Joe, where you goin' with that six-pack in your hand?
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Frantic holiday shopping, last-minute listing, eternal lines at the post office… It can make you want to scream into your pillow. Luckily, this pillow has an image of Edvard Munch's "The Scream," so when everything gets to be too much, you don't have to have a nervous breakdown alone. Afterward, you can use the pillow to take a nice little nap. There now, don't you feel better?
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If conventional piggy banks just aren't your style, try keeping your spare change in this collectible Mr. T bank, where your money is sure to be more secure than the FDIC. The man, himself, proclaims there is "no greater protector" than he and we pity the fool who tries to prove otherwise.
eBay Listing Templates. Enhance your brand and increase sales. With more than 1,700 professionally-designed templates to choose from, representing every category, color, style and theme imaginable, give your listings an attractive, professional look that will get you noticed. Learn more.
Ask Auctiva
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Got a burning question about Auctiva, eBay or e-commerce in general? Through our Ask Auctiva program, you can speak directly to Auctiva's top managers. All you have to do is send an e-mail to "AskAuctiva" at the Auctiva.com domain. Selected questions will be answered by Auctiva managers and published in an article on the Auctiva Education tab. Read some recent Auctiva Q&A articles here.
Please do not submit inquiries requiring an immediate response. If you need a technical issue resolved right away, please file a support request and your case will be addressed by our customer support team.
View all Ask Auctiva Articles.
Auctiva User Profile
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Some people are just born with the entrepreneurial spirit. As a boy in rural Massachusetts, David Peterson of Dragonfly Outlet built a loyal customer base selling seeds door to door in the springtime. By the age of 11, he was running his first successful business—with a partner and employees—selling baseball cards to his classmates. Read story.
Get Featured Here
Got a success story you want to share? What amazing garage sale finds have you turned into monster profits online? How has using Auctiva's free templates and auction management tools improved your eBay business? Drop a line and tell us in 50 words or less about an outstanding e-sale experience, and perhaps we'll feature your story in an upcoming issue of The Online Seller newsletter. Submit your story here.
Auctiva Commerce Store Spotlight
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If there's one thing Robert Socha loves as much as a good comic book, it's locating a hard-to-find one on the Web.
"From the moment I realized the power of the Internet for finding obscure items, I loved shopping for comics online," he says.
His passion for comics and other rare collectibles ultimately led him to open Tic Toc Comics on Auctiva Commerce, where he offers a wide selection of reasonably-priced comics, as well as hard-to-find issues.
Socha began his online collecting and selling on eBay in 2000, and that activity evolved into an eBay Store. But earlier this year, he decided it was time to venture out and open his own site. After considering various options, Socha found what he was looking for in Auctiva Commerce.
"The fees are much more reasonable than the eBay ProStores and Auctiva Commerce is attractive to sellers who are selling a large selection of low-dollar items like myself," he explains. He most appreciates the import feature, which allows merchants to load existing eBay listings in their Auctiva accounts directly into their Auctiva Commerce Stores.
To bring traffic to his site, Socha uses Google Webmaster Tools and Google Merchant Center, and works hard at search engine optimization, adding relevant descriptions and keywords to his listings. He also keeps his shipping rates very low to entice buyers.
The effort is starting to pay off: Socha just recorded his first sale. And that success has motivated him to relocate his entire online inventory to Auctiva Commerce.
"You have nothing to lose if you try Auctiva Commerce," he says. "The fees are extremely low, the tech support is top notch, and you have the opportunity to run a successful, independent store."
Visit Tic Toc Comics.
Click here to set up your own comprehensive Auctiva Commerce Store and get complete freedom over your shop.
Feedback Forum
In response to "Me Page Is About You, Not Me," one reader writes: "[The two-click rule] was once a fair rule—but now that eBay crams as many off-site "sponsored links" as it can onto every page we as sellers pay for, but have no choice over the content of, it's downright farcical." Read the entire thread, and post your response.
If you'd like to comment on this newsletter, any article contained within, or on topics you'd like to see us cover in the future, Auctiva editors would love to hear from you. Send us your feedback here.
Sent by Auctiva Corp.
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