Social Media Tips for Online Marketing

Many businesses have primarily focused on getting listed in Google for no reason other than to drive Google’s search traffic to their own Web space. Social media is no different — businesses are looking to leverage social media traffic to help their own sites and brands. Not all businesses need a Facebook page or a blog to promote and advertise on the popular social media sites. In fact, you might do better simply by making your own online presence social media-friendly and let your users carry your product through to these places instead.

Learn more about social media marketing in this Webopedia Did You Know…? article.

Microsoft Explorer Mouse with BlueTrack Technology Review

Microsoft says its new flagship mouse’s glowing blue bottom is the key to better tracking and higher precision than any optical or laser mouse has offered to date. Vangie Beal throws her mouse pad away to test the company’s claim that BlueTrack works on virtually any surface: Denim? Tile? Skin? Carpet? Kleenex? Lego? Read the full review on HardwareCentral.com.

Microsoft Explorer Mouse with BlueTrack Technology Review
By Vangie Beal, December 1, 2008

Trilogy of Terror: Viruses, Worms and Trojan Horses

The most common blunder people make when the topic of a computer virus arises is to refer to a worm or Trojan horse as a virus. While the words Trojan, worm and virus are often used interchangeably, they are not exactly the same. Viruses, worms and Trojan Horses are all malicious programs that can cause damage to your computer, but there are differences among the three, and knowing those differences can help you to better protect your computer from their often damaging effects.

The Difference Between a Computer Virus, Worm and Trojan Horse
By Vangie Beal, Last updated November 07, 2007

Doing Business on eBay Alternative for a Buck a Month

Online vendors listing on The SOC Exchange pay just one dollar a month or $10 a year to sell, with no other fees. Plus, eBay security updates.

Like newer alternatives, Bonanzle, Wigix, and and eBay’s successful online classified site, Kijiji, The SOC Exchange lets online merchants list “buy now” prices with the option for interested buyers to submit offers (OBO) to sellers on items they are interested in purchasing. It appears many new sites are using this format instead of auctions because it is easier for both buyers and sellers.

The SOC Exchange, however, does not work exactly like a classified site where most transactions are local. Rather, sellers still have the option to accept payments and ship items out to non-local buyers. Lagudi, however, did say that auction-style listings may be offered in the near future.

Doing Business on eBay Alternative for a Buck a Month
By Vangie Beal, November 5, 2008

More Than 1,000 Text Messaging Abbreviations

If you have ever received an instant message or text message that seemed to be written in a foreign language, this Webopedia Quick Reference will help you decipher the text chat lingo by providing the definitions to more than 1,000 chat abbreviations.

Some of the following chat abbreviations may be familiar to you, while others may be foreign because they are used by a different group of people with different online interests and hobbies than your own. For example, people playing online games are likely to use chat abbreviations that are different than those used by teenagers texting on their cell phone or abbreviations used by someone updating a financial blog.

AAF As a matter of fact
AAK Asleep at keyboard
AAK Alive and kicking
AAMOF As a matter of fact
AAMOI As a matter of interest
AAP Always a pleasure
AAR At any rate
AAS Alive and smiling

Read all 1,011 text abbreviations here.

eBay Policy Watch: Fixed Shipping Limits for Media

Can you profit with fixed shipping limits for media sales? We review the new policy going into effect in October.

Lorrie Norrington, President of eBay Marketplaces, has previously said that enforcing shipping limits is designed to protect buyers from excessive shipping charges.

But one of the biggest concerns expressed by sellers is that they will lose money with set shipping limits, as not all CDs and DVDs, for example, are the same size. At times, vendors may have a specialty box set, or an antique book, for instance, that will require them to go beyond the set shipping limits for those types of items.

eBay Policy Watch: Fixed Shipping Limits for Media
By Vangie Beal, September 10, 2008

eBay Watch: E-Payment Policy, Four eBay Alternatives

This week we summarize eBay’s workshop designed to help sellers adjust to electronic-only payments and review eBay’s policy requiring sellers to specify shipping in listings. Plus, we highlight four alternative selling sites.

During the workshop one seller did ask if eBay would charge a Final Value Fee (FvF) based on the total of the item price plus shipping once eBay migrated to all electronic payments and checkout. Currently, eBay sellers do not pay a FvF to eBay that is derived from the cost of shipping charged to buyers, only the item sale price. Neither eBay or PayPal representatives answered this question, which was repeated by other sellers but seemingly ignored during the remainder of the workshop.

eBay Watch: E-Payment Policy, Four eBay Alternatives
By Vangie Beal

Bonanzle: The Best eBay Alternative We’ve Seen

This snappy, start-up company created an online marketplace that’s easy to use, affordable and includes awesome online selling tools. In fact, it’s the best eBay alternative we’ve seen yet.

One of the biggest problems that we find on many of the smaller alternative sites, and even on the big sites including eBay itself, is that in their attempt to be so feature-rich, they actually make listing items a chore for experienced sellers and for novices the task can be rather overwhelming.

As a seller, I know I am not alone in my frustration. From having to go through seven or more screens just to select an item category, to doing just as much work to create my own storefront category names (not to mention copying HTML templates from one Web site to another), listing online for the small, average seller is becoming more complex and awkward and you need to invest far too much time in the actual listing process.

During an interview with Ecommerce-Guide.com, the site’s founder, Bill Harding, summed up the heart of Bonanzle.com’s philosophy when he said, “Do we really need five or more screens to list a single item?”

Bonanzle: The Best eBay Alternative We’ve Seen
By Vangie Beal, July 30, 2008

Create Your Own RSS Feed – Part II

Webopedia.com has updated with Part II of the Quick Reference guide to helping you create your own RSS feed. Part I : How to Create an RSS Feed offered instructions for creating a basic RSS document, and talks about what RSS is, required elements, and feed validation. Part II: “Optional RSS Elements <’tags’>, Syndication and More” covers things like optional elements, feed editors, syndication and other RSS topics.

“Last week we discussed RSS, the acronym used to describe the de facto standard for syndicating Web content, and we provided step-by-step instructions to help you create your own basic RSS feed using the required elements (“tags”). This week we’ll discuss some of the non required (optional) channel and item tags, discuss RSS specifications a little more in-depth, and also look at feed syndication and aggregators.

In creating our first RSS feed, we used only the basic required tags needed to create a working RSS document (also called an RSS feed). These elements, as defined by the RSS 2.0 specification, are called channel elements and the required <channel> elements include <title>, <link>, and <description>.  When creating an RSS document you can also use other optional <channel> sub-elements like <language>, <copyright>, <managingEditor>, <webMaster>, <generator>, <pubDate>, and others, as defined in the RSS 2.0 Specification.”

Part I : How to Create an RSS Feed
By Vangie Beal, July 17, 2008

Part II: Optional RSS Elements <’tags’>, Syndication and More
By Vangie Beal, Last updated: July 23, 2008

Using inkFrog Auction Tools for Princely eBay Profits

Third-party platform inkFrog integrates with eBay to help you list, showcase and manage your sales so you can leap ahead of the competition.

“First let’s just go over the advantages of using off-site tools in general. It’s important to note that by choosing to use an auction service provider, you are not giving up any flexibility in terms of running your business. Sellers can choose to keep using the eBay listing tool if they are more comfortable with it, but at the same time they can use other third-party auction tools, such as image hosting and gallery slideshows, from other companies. This is a benefit to any seller, as it lets you work with a mix of auction tools that best suits your own eBay business and listing needs.

For the most part, sellers choose to use these types of auction management services because they offer listing tools, features and options that eBay doesn’t have, or simply because it makes it easier for them to list and sell on eBay.”

Review: Using inkFrog Auction Tools for Princely eBay Profits
By Vangie Beal, July 21, 2008