To Mouse or Not to Mouse. That is the Question

Ever wonder what you would do if your PS2 mouse stopped working? How would you shut down your computer?

Save time and steps using these helpful shortcuts without ever taking your hands off the keyboard!

How many times have you watched someone else work on their computer and rarely touch the mouse, wondering the entire time how in the world they do that? Or, you and a co-worker are working on a project together and your co-worker finishes everything much more quickly. They say it is because they know how to use their keyboard shortcuts.

The fact is, we have become so accustomed to using the mouse, we forget we have the ability to use keyboard commands. Keyboard commands are quite useful and often time saving.

Most all windows based programs can be navigated using the keyboard. Placing the cursor over menus often displays the "tool tip" which supplies the keyboard command shortcut as well.

Try using some of the following keyboard shortcut. Try it, you’ll like it!

F1- Opens "Help".

F3 - Finds the next record.

F5 - Refreshes page. In Word or other Windows programs, opens "Find and Replace" or "Go To" utility. F5 will also load email in Outlook Express or WWindows Mail too!

F7- Opens "Spell Checker".

Home - Moves cursor to the beginning of a sentence.

End - Moves cursor to end of sentence.

Insert - Opens or begins a new record.

Page up - Allows you to navigate up through the document you are viewing.

Page Down - Allows you to navigate down through the document you are viewing.

Ctrl+Delete - Deletes the current record you are viewing.

Alt+F4 - Closes an open program.

Alt+Tab – Allows you to switch between open programs/windows.

Ctrl+A - Selects the entire text on the page you are currently viewing.

Ctrl+B - Assigns the text to be in bold font.

Ctrl+C – Copies the information highlighted.

Ctrl+D - Opens the "Default Font and Character Spacing" options in Word.

Ctrl+F - Opens "Find" utility.

Ctrl+G - Opens "Find and Replace, Go to Page Number" box.

Ctrl+H - Opens "Find What" utility.

Ctrl+I – Assigns text to be in italics.

Ctrl+K - Will open the hyperlink utility in Word, Outlook Express and other applicable software programs.

Ctrl+M - Will send and receive mail in Outlook Express. Tab function in Word.

Ctrl+N - Allows you to create a new folder. Opens a new window identical to the currently viewed window. Opens a new email message in Outlook Express.

Ctrl+O - Opens up the available files so that you may choose whatever file you wish to open.

Ctrl+P - Opens the "Print" utility allowing you to create a print job.

Ctrl+S - Will save your work. In some programs the selected text will be stricken out.

Ctrl+U - Assigns text to be underlined.

Ctrl+V - Pastes what you have copied.

Ctrl+X – "Cut" function.

Ctrl+Z - Undo typing.

There are tons more keyboard commands available at the tips of your fingers. Microsoft has a great list of keyboard functions keyboard functions These apply to windows based software.

If you are a Mac Fan, there are Apple shortcuts as well.

Get cozy with your keyboard. You will LOVE IT!

eBay 50% off Auction insertion fee sale Feb 23-24, 2010

eBay announced that starting Feb 23, 2010 and ending at midnight on Feb 24, 2010, they will be having a 50% off insertion fee for core style auctions in most categories.

Here is the link to the announcement.

eBay announcement

Renagade Rants Today

Today one of my Bonanzle friends, Renagade posted on her blog about a post she ran across.

The blogger was posting about social media at Bonanzle and how Bonanzle really didn't have it together.

Excellent blog providing some very insightful information. Worth taking your time to read.

How to commit search suicide..

The ability to be found or seen in search queries is absolutely essential. Keywords, text formatting, attributes all play a part in the formula for search visibility. But there is a foundational concept that sellers often forget. and that is their user id.

I often hear Bonanzle sellers saying that no buyer ever searches for a seller by user id... Is that really what a Bonanzle seller want? To be so "forgettable" that no buyer will ever look for you by name..?? Do the Bonanzle sellers forget to type in "Bonanzle"? When was the last time that you forgot you picked up a great gadget at Bed, Bath and Beyond?. Or that you found a perfect pair of shoes from Zappos.. You know those sellers names. Why do you want to be so "forgettable" that a buyer will not remember you by name?

The first step in committing search suicide is to create a user id that is hard to remember or more effective in your suicide efforts is to use punctuation in the user id such as an apostrophe. Using punctuation such as the apostrophe means a browser will not interpret the apostrophe correctly, most buyers do not know they must use an underscore where the apostrophe is at so it renders correctly. And the seller can't be found by name.

Bonanzle sellers booths are branded quite well. Every listing page URL contains the seller's user id right in the address bar. Keep that important little tidbit tucked away for a minute. As it is extremely relevant to committing search suicide quickly and efficiently.

The sellers decides they have made a grave mistake with their user id. Let's change it. No worries, easy to do. contact support, and voila' user id changed. Life is all good. Or is it. we won't even talk about how the user id change can impact business identity, marketing and your bottom line. We will talk about what happens to all those booth items that are already published to google shopping.


So the seller hops over to Google shopping, types in their user id,, and no items are served up.. Great all items associated with the previous user id are gone from Google shopping. Or are they?

Remember the little tidbit about the Bonanzle listing page URL containing the seller's user id... Well on Google shopping the marketplace name must be displayed underneath the price. But the Bonanzle booth URL allows each seller to be branded hence someone can find a particular seller by user id. So it looks like all the sellers product is gone because the seller's user id is changed.

But use item title line search. And well I'll be. There is the item. So the seller presumes their items are in google shopping new user id and all. If the title is clicked,, an Item not found in inventory " error appears. oops, broken link which is a google product policy violation. And the seller just committed search suicide. Until the old listings that are associated with the former user id are either removed by the uploader OR expire in 30 days so a new xml file containing the seller's New user id can be uploaded, the seller can't be found.

There are definitely correct circumstances to change a seller id. But make the changes slowly. Take into consideration all aspects such as all the blogs you are connected with, twitter, facebook, squidoo and how the change impacts google shopping results. Otherwise you will be committing search suicide.

AuctionBytes Sellers Poll

This past month January 2010 AuctionBytes conducted an online survey for eCommerce sellers. What marketplaces do they use and how do they rate those marketplaces.

The results are quite interesting. So check out the article and see what the online world of sellers has to say!

The Land of Slackness

Looking at the Land of Slackness

Slackness is defined as wanting in activity, not using due diligence or care, lacking in completeness or not tight or taunt as in a slack rope.

Slackness is a mentality that attaches itself to a majority of businesses, be it large companies or individual sellers. And slackness will take a toll on your business's bottom line.

So how does slackness affect online sellers? Technically speaking everyone knows that Google (as well as other search engines) likes fresh content. So the business or seller has filled up their Bonanzle booth , their individual websites, eBay Store or other venue of their choice with all these new goodies. Google is in love with them for the first 60 days or so. Then views/hits start to slide.

What to do to stop the sliding? Introduce new content to Google and the other search engines. How do you do that if you have all your inventory online already?

Answer -- Pull older items offline for at least 24 hours.. 72 is better. Then the item can be listed again. Good til Cancelled (GTC) listings can be death of your traffic hits from outside search engines. The content becomes old. Since the item never "ends" it simply drops off to pages and pages back. Never to be seen. Pulling items down every 30 days or so and leaving them offline for a minimum of 24 hours gives you----

Fresh content.. Is it work.. yes it is. But being in business is work. Anyone selling something will tell you the merchandise must be re-faced on the shelves periodically. OR even moved to a new spot. Internet sales are absolutely no different. Sellers like to think they can simply put up product never to touch it again. That thinking is from the "Land of Slackness" Lacking in activity.

Technically speaking, if you want your items to be new and fresh, slackness won't work. Tow a tight rope in your business model. Introduce fresh content frequently!

Bonanzle Boardroom Episode 2 December 3, 2009

Tonight was Bonanzle Boardrooms' 2nd episode. Wow what a great audience. The chat room was packed full. The chat box was overrunning with incredibly insightful questions and comments. Laughter, fun and more importantly, learning. Covering everything from the Bonanzle News to the winners of the Burning Bonanzle Question.

Yes you read it right. Two Burning Bonanzle question winners

aqua_angels



And


DMedicineWoman

Here is the link to the podcast.

Bonanzle Boardroom episode 2

Have fun Bonanzling!

eBay 50% off Insertion Fee Auction Style Listings Nov 25, 2009

Hi, all

eBay announced that November 25, 2009 they are offering a 50% off insertion fees on all Auction Style listings.

eBay 50% off Insertion fee Sale

So get those listings up in preparation for the launch of the Holiday Shopping Season

Bonanzle Boardroom premier Podcast!

November 5, 2009 aired the live, premier Bonanzle Boardroom podcast. A full hour packed full of all kinds of information the Bonanzle sellers need and want.

The Burning Bonanzle question was won by Kaboodlegifts. They asked about a subject that everyone wonders about...Do paid Bonanzle subscribing members get better placement in search results on the Bonanzle site and in Google product shopping.

The special guest was our very own Mark Dorsey of Bonanzle. Mark is the Bonanzle forum monitor which is just one of his many duties. It was a true pleasure to have him as a guest. He addressed some weighty issues as well as the future expectations of Bonanzle growth.

The tips from the white board was about the new "Vacation setting" feature recently added at Bonanzle.

We had a premier sponsor for the podcast. Karen from
mommysbazaar sponsored the first ever podcast. Take a minute to visit mommysbazaar's booth for a true eclectic of goodies

To hear all the entire podcast, visit

Bonanzle Boardroom podcast

Until next month's podcast,,, happy Bonanzle selling!

Typical eBay day

TheBrewsNews had an interesting article on their website about a typical eBay day for most any eBay seller.

The hard to navigate eBay site creating an extremely difficult task to try and communicate with uneducated buyers is sometimes almost overwhelming. Checkout system is difficult seasoned buyers never mind new buyers. Contacting a buyer can be anything but easy.

Now eBay has been sending out surveys to a select group of sellers inquiring about how sellers would best like to see fees. Insertion as well as Final value fees. And we all know that anytime eBay starts polling with surveys, there are changes on the way.

Take a look at the great article TheBrewsNews wrote about their typical Monday morning dealing with buyers. Any eBay seller will be quite familiar with the scenarios

Just Another Typical Monday Morning as an eBay Seller

Bonanzle Essay winner

Yes I am a bit late but being late doesn't make it any less significant. Bonanzle had an Essay contest to celebrate when they reached 100K users.

Relentless simplicity was still the theme. And on September 30, 2009, the winner was announced....

jsgear of Bonanzle won the contest. He has a great booth selling all kinds of HO trains. So be sure to drop by his booth!

And then take the time to read his great essay!

jsgear_100K_essay

Bonanzle Boardroom is open

For Immediate Release



Contact:

Phaedra Stockstill

@ The Boutique

phaedra@bonanzleboardroom.com

http://bonanzleboardroom.com

Or

Judy Oglesby

bluepennylady

judy@bonanzleboardroom.com

http://bonanzleboardroom.com




The Bonanzle Boardroom is Prepped and Ready



Phaedra Stockstill and Judy Oglesby have teamed up to bring you a new monthly podcast - The Bonanzle Boardroom. Creating a one stop podcast for up to date, rock solid information about selling on this exciting marketplace.



On November 5th, 2009 at 8 pm Est the premier broadcast will air on Talkshoe. The podcast will last one hour and will bring to the air the knowledge of both of these wonderfull ladies. Covering updates on what's new on Bonanzle, tips from the white board, and solid eCommerce information.



Airing once a month on the first Thursday of every month, the Bonanzle Boardroom will be one hour of Bonanzle information, updates, and selling tips. Keeping up with all things Bonanzle has never been easier.



For further information you can visit the Bonanzle Boardroom page on Talkshoe
Or visit the newly created Bonanzle Boardroom website, BonanzleBoardroom

Judy Oglesby

http:www.bonanzle.com/bluepennylady
http://twitter.com/bluepennylady

How Time Flies

In a few weeks will mark the two year anniversary of when our oldest twin son took an 18 foot fall headfirst from the iron on a building he was erecting, nearly claiming his life.

The road to recovery has had its challenges. He is a walking miracle. I see our son returning to his "old self". That same sparkle in his eye is back. That disarming from the heart kind of smile is there. But what is totally cool is some of the "Brain" things are working again.

Prior to the fall, he use to be able to calculate in his head faster than you could run numbers on a calculator. Do complex mathematical calculations on the jobsite without pen or paper. That was lost in the fall. But the other day, he stood in our living room, talking to his dad about a roofing job and how much foam material they would need. Without even noticing, he stood there and ran the job numbers in his head, told his dad the square footage, how thick the foam needed to be and broke it down into the kits needed.

I couldn't hardly keep the tears back. Several months ago he would have had to sit down with pen and paper to do that.

He was my coffee drinking buddy. He would come by most mornings real early and grap coffee on his way to a jobsite (if he was in town). He lost his taste for coffee as well as lots of foods he use to love. The taste for coffee is returning. Now, he comes by and graps a cup. Did that yesterday. Hearing his travel mug crack open and the pot pouring coffee makes my heart so thankful. I will make 100 pots of coffee for him. God is so good.!

Now if we can just get him to eat broccoli again!

Bonanzle Boardroom Something new in the air -

There is just something going on around Bonanzle. What is it you ask?

Bonanzle Boardroom
Let's Talk Shop...


There is something new in the air. The boardroom is being prepped. Fresh crisp notepads, plenty of sharpened pencils and water at every seat.

The anticipation builds..

Who is at the head of the conference table in the boardroom?

What's on the white board?

Stay tuned to find out.......................

Google Base/Product webinars re-scheduled!

Good day, all

Phaedra from attheboutique And Judy from bluepennylady booth have re-scheduled the Google Base/Product webinars

October 22, 2009 (Thursday) and October 29, 2009 (Thursday) at 7:00 pm CST.

There are still a few spots available.

This is a don't miss webinar. With all the changes to Google Base and Google Product, there are lots of questions. And the webinar will give you lots of answers.

So here's your chance to not only see how all this will now work for your benefit and increase your business but to ask those questions one on one.

Sign up at Phaedra's attheboutique booth

see you there!

Judy/blue

Google Base Webinar Postponed

Based on the Google Base announcement, Phaedra from attheboutique and I, bluepennylady, decided we better postpone the Google Base webinars.

Google Base announced they were going to require marketplaces, such as Bonanzle and eBayto upload seller's items on their behalf to Google Base. The deadline for the change over is December 1, 2009

You can read the announcement at Google Base Blog

In order to provide the attendees with the most relevant information, it is necessary to postpone.

I am so excited I can't hardly stand it. Phaedra Stockstill from attheboutique on Bonanzle has asked me to join forces with her and teach a Google Base webinar.

The webinar is in two Parts. September 10 is Part 1 where we will cover the "How to" setup a Google Base account correctly. So many people do not understand how to configure their account or even what the settings mean. It will be at 7 pm CDT/8pm EDT.

Go here to read more or sign up for Part 1

Part 2 is on September 17 at the same time. 7pm CDT/8pm EDT. We will look at the Dashboard, how to read the performance details as well as making sense of Impressions and clicks.

For more information on Part 2

There is a discount for purchasing both classes at once.

don't miss out on this opportunity. Plus there will be a Q&A at the end of the webinar.

Look forward to seeing you!

Judy
bluepennylady

BonanzleUP Wichita Thinking Outside the Box

HI all,

The BonanzleUp Wichita May 23, 2009 event was a huge success. We had such a great time and learned so much from each other. Plus getting to put faces with the names was wonderful.

Unfortunately the live broadcast had a technical glitch so the video streaming did not work. BUT never fear, I had my trusty old analog video camera,.. it is such a great camera.

And I have started editing the tapes. This is the first part of the First presentation.

Thinking Outside the box.

So Enjoy

Judy
bluepennylady

BonanzleUP Wichita May 23, 2009

It is almost upon us! The Wichita BonanzleUP 2009 event.. And I can't hardly wait. It is unbelievable the dedication and work individuals have put into hosting these events across the US.

Last weekend was BonanzleUP Seattle, WA. The event was a huge success. I anticipate Wichita 2009 will be just as great a success. Not to mention finally putting faces with all the names. Plus all the tons of great information sellers will have access to.

I am going to try to remember to post the links to the video of the event.

It will be a great day~

bluepennylady

Web-based Auction Management tools versus Computer-Based

Over the past few days the Auctiva website was infected with a Trojan. Auctiva users could not safely log into their accounts to manage their listings. And the buyers could not pay for items purchased.

Here is a link to an article at AuctionBytes..

Trojan Infects Auctiva


This exact scenario is one of the reasons I stay away from web-based applications. Had I been an Auctiva user, my anti virus software would not even allow me to navigate to the site, so I could not have managed a single listing for over four days.

Now I realize my own computer network could be attacked. Anyone could be. But putting my sensitive information on another site whose security could not be up to par isn't something I even don't want to think about.

I will just stick with my computer based Auction management software that I have used for years. Auction Wizard 2000

If the internet is down, doesn't matter I can continue putting in information for auctions, editing images or whatever I want to do on my computer. And I don't have to store any of my passwords or financial information on a site out there that is high profile and could easily be attacked, gleaning my information..

No waiting for a browser page to load so I can add/edit images, add description text or all the other tasks that must be done in order to manage auctions. It is on my computer and moves as fast as my computer does.

Nope, I will stay with computer based Auction management software.