Bonanzle Boardroom Podcast Thursday April 1. 2010 No Foolin'

Can you believe it..

A whole month has flown by. And it is time for the next Bonanzle Boardroom podcast!

This month we will have a special guest. Elizabeth also known as ANightOwl is joining the Bonanzle Boardroom podcast.

So grap your favorite beverage, find a comfy spot, turn up the computer speakers or headset and listen and learn.

Don't forget to post your questions on the Burning Bonanzle Question thread.. If your question is selected we will link back to your booth on the Boardroom website, on blogs as well as several mentions!

See you Thursday, April 1, 2010.


Talkshoe

Our very own Phaedra Stockstill blogs on ColderIce

Yes, you read the title correctly.

Our very own Phaedra Stockstill of attheboutique has a blog article at ColderIce.

Phaedra's blog is so very relevant for us today. It is about the networking bubble, how to use it, what to expect and how not to stress!

Read it for yourself Bubbles: Networking for the Now Generation

New on Bonanzle Boardroom "Successful Bonanzle Sellers" Interviews!

The Bonanzle Boardroom has launched something totally new!

Interviews with "Successful Bonanzle sellers".. With such an influx of new sellers, comes an increasing demand for more information. How do you move your buyers from other venues to your Bonanzle booth?

What about marketing your booth? How are others doing it, (meaning marketing) The list of questions from inquiring minds is almost endless.

So the 'answer" Let the community speak.

Be sure to check the Bonanzle Boardroom podcast page for interviews..

IN fact, the very first interview is already there just for your listening pleasure... Sharsboutique was the first Interviewee (is that a word!! )

Listen and learn at your leisure..

Bonanzle Gears up Protecting the community

This week Bonanzle added even more security measures to protect the community, sellers and buyers alike.

The "What's new changelist" talked about the following site enhancements.



a;) Added more advanced detection mechanisms to catch previously suspended sellers signing up.
b:) Added detection of unusual transaction patterns to analyze for potential fraud.
c:) Censored users can't interact at roundtable.

Protecting the Bonanzle selling community against potential fraud is of utmost importance. The Baby Daddy of Bonanzle, Bill Harding is keeping pace by continually tweaking the system security.

Way to go Bonanzle!

March 23, 2010 eBay 50% off Insertion fee Sale

Wow, another 50% off insertion fee sale at eBay. Loving this that is for sure.

eBay 50% off sale

Get to listing !

Phaedra Stockstill will be Interviewed on the Seller Buzz Radio Show March 18

Phaedra Stockstill will be Interviewed on the Seller Buzz Radio Show March 18

March 16, 2010 eBay 50% off Auction insertion fee Sale

Wow, eBay is having another 50% off insertion fee for Auction style listings again. On March 16, 2010!

Here is the announcement!

So get those items ready to List tomorrow, Tuesday, March 16, 2010. 50% off is quite the savings.

Bonanzle Announces an Addition to Tech Support Team

Bonanzle is growing at such a rapid pace. And as the user base expands so does the demand for support. In answer to the increasing user, Bill announced March 12, 2010a new addition to the Bonanzle tech team, Elizabeth of ANightOwl

Elizabeth joined Bonanzle October of 2008 and is very active on the Bonanzle forums as well as running a successful Bonanzle booth.

According to Bill,

"Elizabeth's initial responsibilities will be helping to approve and improve our item traits, monitoring and enforcing payments, and keeping an eye on site help comments and images submitted for the category page. We also plan to have her dabble in support and other community maintenance tasks as needed."

Elizabeth will start out part-time as Tom did.. Yeah right! With the rapidly increasing Bonanzle user base, I suspect Elizabeth will quickly be seen frequently in the "support" role. So start sending in those emails to see if you can catch one with Elizabeths' name!

A hearty congratulations to you Elizabeth!! No wonder you were walking around for days smiling. what a honor indeed! Welcome aboard!

March 11, 2010 eBay 50% off Insertion Fee Auction Style Listings

eBay announced this evening, there is a 50% off the insertion fee on regular Auction style listing on March 11, 2010, Thursday. That is a big deal. This is the third insertion fee sale eBay has ran in the last 4 weeks. Good for the sellers and the buyers.

eBay's announcement

So get those listings ready to go at one minute after midnight ..

Happy selling!

Bonanzle and the Switchboard

Bill, the Baby Daddy of Bonanzle, has been hard at work programming a really neat feature called the Switchboard.

The Bonanzle switchboard is a ribbon or strip that resides along the lower portion of the browser. The purpose of the switchboard is to group all notifications, quick text messages and other activities into one spot for easier management. For those sellers who have ever lost a quick text message, forgot about a Bonanza or could not remember where that special something was you looked at an hour ago is located, well you will love the switchboard.

For screenshots of the new feature, check the Bonanzle Boardroom out.

Or better yet, checkout your Bonanzle booth Account Settings > Other Options page!

Bonanzle Boardroom podcast Talks about Syndication

The Thursday night Bonanzle Boardroom podcast was once again filled to the brim with the ever interesting Bonanzle and eCommerce sellers! Full of fun, questions and learning from one another. as it should be.

Phaedra Stockstill of attheboutique brought a very interesting segment on the Bonanzle Affliate and Syndication program. The chat room was full of questions, comments and seller's sharing their experiences.

If you missed the live podcast, you can still listen at your leisure

Podcast

Happy Bonanzling!

Bonanzle Boardroom Podcast March 4, 2010 Episode

March 4, 2010 Bonanzle Boardroom Podcast is once again upon us! 7 pm CST at Talk Shoe

This month John Lawson of ColderIce is the podcast sponsor.

We have the Tip from the Whiteboard---

Rant Southern Belle Style by Phaedra Stockstill of attheboutique

Getting Techy by Judy Oglesby ofbluepennylady And you don't want to miss this month's techy section. As I have the official response from Google content concerning duplicate, similar, different and identical content policy. Information you need for your online business

Plus we are covering some of the the "What's new" at Bonanzle.

And the winner of the Burning Bonanzle Question!

Join us! We will be accepting calls from listeners to ask those burning questions.

March 2, 2010 eBay 50% off Insertion fee Core Auction style Listings

eBay announced another 50% off the insertion fee on core Auction style listings for March 2, 2010. One Day only!

eBay Announcement

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!