The Trading Assistant Journal has moved - we are no longer hosted on WordPress.com under the domain name allbusinessauctions.wordpress.com. Please change your existing links to: http://tradingassistantjournal.com . Thanks!
Due to circumstances beyond our control, we have moved the Trading Assistant Journal from WordPress.com to a self hosted WordPress installation.
Our old domain: http://allbusinessauctions.wordpress.com has been updated to:
http://tradingassistantjournal.com
Work will continue to get the blog back to its former status with all of the features and sidebar widgets (plus new features). For now we have all of the articles imported and will work on mapping the old domain with a little luck.
Robert Scoble is a fairly famous blogger, videographer, photographer and all around tech critic/guru. he has worked with all of the big tech conglomerates including Microsoft, Fast Money, and now RackSpace (More details about Scoble available via the link attached to his name).
While his interview of the powers that be at Vendio was not exactly from the perspective of a well informed ecommerce specialist or writer, (He refers or defers to his ex-wife's experiences with eBay) this video does offer some insight into how the platform Vendio has assembled works. Scoble does not venture into our world of eCommerce often so I find it interesting that this interview even occurred. Good job Vendio!
From the very first day of my involvement within the eCommerce world, the holy grail of selling online included offering product on multiple venues yet managing that inventory from one central location or software package. Personally I have worked towards that goal for several years, working with developers and designers who had greater resources than my own and trying to convince them of the need for an entry level multi- channel solution. It's always nice to know you had the right idea all along, even if someone else implements it before you do.
What the company has to say about it's new eCommerce solution:
The Vendio Platform is a complete eCommerce solution that includes a robust, feature-rich online store as well as item, order and customer management – all for free. It doesn’t matter whether a merchant sells 10 or 10,000 items in their Vendio store – they pay no web hosting fees, imaging hosting fees, listing fees or success fees. There is no catch. No gimmicks.
Features of the Vendio Platform with free online store:
Fast and easy setup: Be up and running in minutes. Create your items and store without any development work or technical knowledge.
Customized look-and-feel: Customize your store with your logo, custom categories, featured items, external links and more. You have complete control when you use our easy-to-use Store Builder to see exactly how your store will look as you build it.
Professional designs: Dozens of free templates to choose from to make your store stand out.
Simplified sales: All customers, items, and orders managed from one location. No need to worry about tracking transactions across different channels - it's all in one spot.
SEO & Analytics: Add meta keywords and descriptions quickly and easily in order to help buyers find your store via search engines. Google Analytics integration assists you in monitoring and understanding your store traffic.
Custom URL: Get a free Vendio domain or create your own custom domain name to keep your brand intact.
Item Search: Buyers can search both your item titles and descriptions.
Widget: Promote items anywhere online such as your website or blog with a cool widget that shows off your items.
Again, Vendio offers all these store features as well as the sales management, for free. Just because the Vendio store is free, doesn’t mean that it’s subpar to existing paid store offerings on the market such a Pro Store or a Yahoo Store. Here is a helpful feature matrix that differentiates the Vendio store from just some of its competitors.
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What’s most unique and powerful about the Vendio Platform is that all items uploaded into the Platform are automatically placed in the store, immediately available for sale.
If a merchant wants to reach more buyers in places where they shop, such as eBay, Amazon or Google, then they can easily extend the Platform to multiple marketplaces for a small monthly fee plus percentage of sales. Extending the Platform means that the merchant uses just one set of inventory details for as many marketplaces as they’d like to sell on – all managed from one, single interface. This results in countless saved hours and inventory management control mix-ups.
For merchants who are interested in extending the Vendio Platform to marketplaces, Vendio is currently offering a 60 Day Trial. Along with the trial comes a great bonus – Vendio is waiving its Amazon fees for the rest of 2009.
What "Others" are saying - Robert Scoble interview with the Vendio Founders
My Take on the Vendio Platform eCommerce /software solution:
Scott's Take
Vendio has a long history as a third party software and applications developer and is a familiar company to eBay sellers. The work that has obviously gone into this multi-channel solution is very apparent and indicates a long standing understanding about how merchants, especially eBay merchants, work to get product online.
Usability: I give it a 8 on a scale of 10
Functionality: I say 9 on a scale of 10
Intimidation Factor: 3 on a scale of 10
The Vendio platform may indeed be the light at the end of a long tunnel for many eBay merchants, especially if they have not yet expanded beyond eBay to sell on other channels or on their own web store.
If you are an experienced eBay seller, this Vendio Platform solution will give you the confidence to go forth and find new markets, to boldly go into the ecommerce world - feet first, while knowing that you will have familiar surroundings and procedures available at all times. No need to leave the comfortable blanket that is eBay or the traffic the megasite produces, yet with the Vendio Platform tools, new markets await that may help you to see beyond the eBay safety net. Expanding into multi-channel ecommerce is the next logical step for any eBay merchant.
The software has been extremely well thought out, it is apparent that years of development work went into this package. And the prior experience with an eBay focused offering shows through here.
Importing existing eBay listings is an easy proceedure and once complete all can be converted to free web store listings.
Importing eBay Listings
The control panel is well laid out and the instructions are comprehensive as can be seen by reviewing this extensive create listings PDF found in the help section. Or you can read it here before you sign up for your free account.
Keep in mind this is just one of the 23 extensive help manuals available for download on the site:
While the platform has had a great deal of sweat equity poured into it prior to launch in March of 2009, this does not mean that the new platform is completely finished.
One example of need for improvement comes when users begin to list a new item. The list new item screen (which is a one page piece of organized well thought out web engineering) unfortunately does not have an integrated image upload function. A user must first go to Images -> upload images and then create a folder to then upload images one at a time to the site. Then come back to create a new item and choose the folder where the images reside to include those images in a new listing. Obviously this process needs to be refined to allow for a faster method of uploading image files directly from the listing form. I contacted my Vendio contacts about this issue to find out if there were any way to speed up the process? I had an answer back within 1/2 hour - the entire image upload process is being re-worked and should be complete in a few weeks.
It seems that not only does this company listen to their users, but they also act on the needs of the users to improve the product.
Overall Impression: I say give Vendio a try, the ecommerce webstore is free forever and with an eBay import you can easily see how the system works for you. Having the ability to test products and control inventory on Amazon and eBay as well as in other search driven marketing and a stand alone ecommerce store from one control panel is the ideal solution that I have been looking for ages. Vendio as a company has been working with eBay sellers for a long time and they know the business. One does need to keep in mind that optional features incur monthly charges but the base online webstore is completely free. Why not give it a test drive?
Additional Tid Bit: One feature that Vendio does not tout regarding this free hosted webstore that I find most intriguing is that the eCommerce webstore package can be added to any existing domain. In other words if you have a business with an existing brochure style website and you would like to add an ecommerce shopping cart to that site without all the expense or hassel of starting over from scratch, give Vendio a hard look. By following a few simple instructions and simply creating a folder on your server with a single FTP upload a small piece of code your website can almost instantly become and eCommerce website. http://mywebsite.com becomes http://mywebsite.com/store with a fully functional ecommerce shopping cart that is secure and can accept multiple forms of payment. How cool is that? And it is Free!
Here is a table of existing Vendio Webstores for your review:
All Business Auctions: Was the home base of my consignment business and then it became a provider of eBay related third party software and eBay stores design services.
All Business Auctions website gave me the impetus to learn how to create websites in house.
This became a priority at the time, simply because outsourcing the creation of our website was a nightmare. I went through so many local developers to get the job done, after two years of frustration and lost money I worked with my partner to develop the site in house. We learned a lot during the process of building AllBusinessAuctions.com on Joomla! This experience gave me a real passion for Content Management Systems and brought a whole new direction and focus to my business. The blog was started as a project to see how well WordPress could perform (I had a blogspot blog at the time)and to learn how the addition of a blog to an existing domain will bring additional organic traffic to the main website. The one two punch worked and would have been an incredible combination if it had been implemented two years prior when I originally commissioned the project with outside developers.
Since the main site was finalized much has changed in our business. The consignment operations on eBay have ceased, we are no longer a Trading Post or a Trading Assistant registered with eBay. Changes in the landscape of third party eBay management software providers have impacted our ability to provide the AuctionLogic software and still make a reasonable profit, therefore we have ceased those operations as well.
With the changes over the last two years at eBay (much documented here and in many other online publications), running an eBay centric service company became a tenuous and formidable challenge. One that really tested my loyalty to all that I believed about the opportunity that eBay had presented to both myself, and my clients. It was and is difficult to think of the effort and time dedicated to an eBay only business plan. Looking back now it seems obvious that it was pure folly to base an entire business plan upon the whims of another company. In actuality I did not see it that way at the time because I had built All Business Auctions on the vision that we would represent several different third party eBay providers. The idea was sound when eBay had a positive growth curve, but after the eBay marketplace changed, so the interest from small businesses.
We moved on to form iBusinessLogic another service company more broadly based Internet and Web development company offering web site hosting, Content Management System web development, WordPress development, implementation and training in addition to representing many of the same third party brands in the eBay space as did All Business Auctions in the past. iBusinessLogic is not dependent upon eBay for its revenue stream but we still have clients from the All Business Auctions period who depend upon us to help them to understand the changing landscape of eBay and in many cases to help them focus on creating a company centric branded presence on the Internet.
These changes have left me with a quandary about what to do with the All Business Auctions name and the two sites associated with it. The blog has experienced good traffic from the start and has been linked to from sites around the Internet. As anyone who has studied how WordPress blogs bring in organic traffic knows, the regular addition of content is key to maintaining a healthy blog. What to write about when eBay is no longer the focus for the brand All Business Auctions? It has been a quandary only accentuated by the expansion of iBusinessLogic and the client work we have been blessed with since changing our focus.
[This article is re-published here from the Examiner.com]
No one would argue that as a civilization we as humans have evolved. From pre-historic times when humans huddled together in small groups to survive the rigors of the natural elements they lived within, to the days of vast nation states that massed the will of their people into one awe inspiring force.
Social networks of all kinds have been at the core of the human experience.
In the world of today we all seem to have grown more insular. Many times we look out at the world from behind a computer screen and from within the walls of small cubicles. Email, chat, discussion forums, twitter friends and online dating all tend to keep us from make the most basic of all human connections - the face to face handshake.
As a person who is wrapped up in the Internet and all of the possibilities it affords and opportunity it offers I have seen and experienced the effects of being immersed in a world where friendships and connections are made from behind a keyboard. The people you chat with online are mostly all real, but the Internet social experience can never match the tried and true old fashioned world of face to face networking.
This is why groups have sprung up around the world in an effort to climb out from the cubicle lives we have all been leading and actually schedule times to meet one another face to face.
One of these organizations is called Meetup. The concept is simple at Meetup.com, they provide the tools needed to organize a meetup event and the home base website which allows local meetup organizers to offer a social networking group in thier area based on any interest or dicipline the group organizer wants to bring together. Continue reading “Meetup.com – Getting Together – Business and Social Networking – Locally” »
I logged into my Bonanzle.com account today and proceeded to the My Bonanzle home page. This is the central hub for all Bonanzle users, buyer or seller and serves as a control panel/information resource. Today I noticed one interesting update:
This seems like a momentous amount of users and at the rate Bonanzle seems to be gaining each day, the 50,000 user mark should be here very soon. With this in mind, I thought a poll would be an interesting way to gauge the real attraction to Bonanzle.com.
This of course is not a scientific poll as the questions came from my noggin but I think the answers will reveal what it is that has everyone so interested in this (as I said in a previous article) "Bodacious eBay competitor". (Not that we are in any way comparing this to eBay).
So what is it? What do you like about Bonanzle, what do you dislike?
(Pencil in your answers if I have not provided enough options in the poll, or simply comment below....
I have been aware of the Vzaar video embed service for eBay sellers and Internet merchants since they started back in 2007. Not being a big user of video though I really did not spend a lot of time checking the company out. To tell the truth, this could be one of my biggest mistakes in the last 2 years!
(I apologize toCaptain Jean-Luc Picard - I couldn't resist!)
Everyone is now aware of the power of video for product presentations, for engagement of the audience and to more effectively present any service on a website (or in this case any eBay listing) in a fashion that is accepted worldwide. Viewers may not speak your language but a video can explain your product or service to them - it is that effective.
A picture may be worth a 1000 words! What is the extrapolation for video? - a Billion words?
Yet I have not paid as much attention to video as I should have. Frankly I was blithely wandering through life with my own little writers mentality enjoying ignorant bliss. Wow, did I miss the boat on this one!
Jamie Parkins
Jamie Parkins of Vzaar tried to show me the way at eBay Live in Chicago 2008. We met on the solutions floor about, oh... a dozen times it seems. Jamie was actively trying to get my attention for his product and to be honest he had a great story to tell. I listened, I watched and I found it all very interesting but I have to admit something... In the back of my head was what I thought was a huge question about this paid video embed service...
Twitter is now mainstream and big time, if you have not heard of Twitter yet you must have been hiding in some deep dark cavern. Oprah Winfry, Regis Philbin and Ellen DeGeneris are all talking about Twitter. Nearly every local television news department in the USA has a dedicated Twitter specialist and all your friends with iPhones or Blackberrys are using it, but what the heck is it and how does it help your life or business?
Twitter is communication on a global scale in 142 character mini messages.
Twitter is Niche building at its best - Twitter about your niche and your audience will find you
Twitter is a way to learn what the thought leaders in your industry are thinking and doing
Twitter is the most productive and possibly the most time consuming social networking application you may ever use
Every Twitter "Tweet" is indexed by Google - Content you control with your business name
Twitter can be a customer service tool, a prospecting tool, an advertising vehicle or just a personal messaging interface - you choose one or all
Twitter basically is the worlds largest chat room only you decide with whom you chat and who's messages you see on your twitter application of choice. Each message is called a "tweet". Colloquialisms such as Tweeps (Twitter speak for another slang word Peeps or People) have sprung up around the culture that is Twitter. Twitter can be used directly from the twitter.com website or by downloading any number of different desktop or cell phone applications. I use an adobe air application called Twhirl and sometimes a more advanced tool called TweetDeck (TweetDeck takes up more room on the desktop than Twhirl. On my blackberry I use TwitterBerry but because of the huge popularity of Twitter there are new and exciting applications and tools launched every day (see below).
Follow me - Follow Who?
You can follow anyone on twitter, yet that person may or may not follow your account back. This is OK because say... if you were President Barak Obama and selected "follow" for everyone who followed you on Twitter, the messages would buzz by on the screen at blazing speed. President Obama has almost 1/2 Million followers on twitter yet he has submitted only 264 updates to his twitter followers mostly during the campaign. (Barak should update more - to be of value to his followers, but I digress....). Some popular or influential people have tens of thousands of followers, these people have the power to shut down unprepared websites with a single tweet if they include a url or domain name in the message. Gaining followers is the name of the game on twitter.
Twitter for Business
Twitter is a very interesting tool for business use. Remember though that Twitter is a Social Networking tool, not a Television ad placement. Posting Tweets with simple product information or hawking your wares in an old fashioned marketing manner will gain you little in the way of influential followers. Your goal is to inspire curiosity and trust, not sell a widget with each tweet. Smart twitter users keep seperate twitter accounts for different interests such as business and personal. (You don't want your business followers reading some of those personal tweets - now do you?). I maintain several Twitter accounts under different names for business and personal reasons.
iBusinessLogic - Is my web development business twitter account - This is also tied in with my iBusinessLogic Blog and will tweet new posts.
GlobalLinkUSA - Twitter account of MerchantRun GlobalLink in the USA - This account is used to update users of the software as well as promotion of the Software as a Service eBay Marketplaces management tool.
BonanzleStore - BonanzleStore is not yet launched but this account is tied in with Bonanzle-Webstore.com to promote the new BonanzleStore platform providing Bonanzle merchants with an enhanced experience for eCommerce sales.
BonanzleUp! - BonanzleUp! is the Twitter account of BonanazleUp.com a central location for Bonanzle Meetup event organizers to plan and discuss localized Bonanzle merchants conferences around the country.
As you can see, I believe in the use of Twitter for many different reasons and applications. I do not see it as a time waster or simply a fad or passing tool kids use. Twitter is used regularly by Corporate executives and housewives alike, it can be whatever you want it to be yet for business and Internet business in particular it has become the
most valuable relationship building tool I have ever experienced. I converse regularly with people who I have met on Twitter and these people have not only been helpful but they have also sent me referrals and business. Jason Calacanis of Mahalo.com and formerly Weblogs Inc has said that every follower on twitter could be worth a dollar in your pocket. I can state that Jason is absolutely correct in that statement if not possibly understating the value, becuase I have personally seen the Twitter income effect add to my bottom line.
I have a soft spot in my heart for the eBay and consignment store operators who have made the consignment business model work with eBay.
For many, running a eBay drop store was an uphill climb that was too steep to endure. Yet for those with the real chops, business savvy and who were the strongest, wisest and the best business oriented individuals... eBay combined with retail and direct consignment sales have fed the family and more through good times and bad.
It's no secret that I have a history in eBay consignment and franchise drop store operations and sales. My opinion (post personal or business involvement in same) of franchising stores has become well known since I wrote eBay Drop Stores Why They Failed , the conclusions from that article are almost self evident at this point.
It must be said: Running a true consignment store which utilizes eBay is different from the business plan of most eBay franchises pitches of the past. With an independent consignment store the merchant has a higher chance of success. Why?
Lower Cost - No franchise Fees
Flexibility - No Franchise Rules
Diversity - Not tied only to eBay Sales - Pick and choose what sells where - Store Floor or eCommerce
One other factor that is very important to remember is that running a business is not usually a cookie cutter proposition.
This fact is more true in consignment than almost any other retail opportunity. A consignment store owner must have the ability to make quick business judgments about what to consign, how to price, when to send items to the internet, and how long to keep stock before clearing it out at a lower price or sending it back to the owner unsold. Some people who seek out franchise opportunities seem to be looking for someone else to make these decisions for them. Consignment is not one of those kinds of businesses. There are not just 5 kinds of hamburgers and three sizes of fries to sell in consignment. While the business model may be more challenging than most in terms of variety of knowlege, it also can be ultimately much more interesting, a consignment store owner never knows what will walk through the door tomorrow or sell next week.
Real entrepreneurs can make consignment a profitable proposition, Michael Weinstein is one of those real entrepreneurs.
Inside the Store
Michael and his wife Linda are real business people and they have made consignment work for them for over 10 years in the same location. They own Charmingly Linda's Quality Consignments a successful retail establishment near Philadephia, Pa. I have been acquainted with them both for some time and have actually referred anyone who contacts me in the PA area to them for eBay or consignment advice or services ever since I met them. Michael and Linda know the business!
So much so that new opportunities have presented themselves for Michael and Linda. They have developed a consulting and development business and help other local business owners to understand the business of selling online.
What started out as a part time project (the consulting) has become more of a full time proposition. Michael and Linda have reached the point where they are ready to take the next step in life and in business. Therefore they must make the difficult decision to sell the business that provided for them and taught them how to be successful for the last ten years.
If you are looking for an opportunity to own your own business in Pennsylvania and if you have the stuff it takes to buy and sell at a profit (with initial help and guidance from Michael and Linda), then the following opportunity might just be worth a long look!
For Sale: Charmingly Linda's Quality Consignments. A retail & Ebay consignment shop. 10 years in business. Over 2400 registered consignors. High demographic consignor base. Located on Lancaster Ave in the Philadelphia burbs known as the main line. Continued growth even in this economy. Over 4000 positive ebay feedbacks. Turn key and profitable!
1. A method of estimating the position of an aircraft or a ship without astronomical observations, as by applying to a previously determined position the course and distance traveled since.
2. Predictive calculation based on inference; guesswork.
It seems that I am following a theme here, the nautical analogy series here on the TAJ!
OK- So what is he talking about now? Last time it was an article about the "Center of Effort" and now I bring up a term like Dead Reckoning?
Am I home sick for my days at sea? Well ya, actually I am...
But more than that, I seem to be thinking about how these seemingly different worlds of business and seafaring can learn and adapt useful knowledge and therories from one another. After all the first international trade over long distances was carried out by sailing ship captains. Business has always been a part of seafaring, I wonder... how can looking at the basics of seafaring benefit business?
What is Dead Reckoning?
What on the surface first appears as such an ominous term, is in fact an ancient method of finding ones way on the ocean, land or in the air. Before electronic navigation methods (including the now ever present Global Position System) and without the training to use of a sextant for celestial observations, Dead Reckoning was the only way for Captains, Explorers and Airplane pilots to find their way across the vast expanses of our Earth.
The Dead Reckoning method of navigation is boiled down to knowing where one started and where one wants to eventually arrive, then updating the progress of the trip frequently along the way. The progress is updated with position "fixes" derived from observations, speed, current and wind estimates, and good old fashioned guesswork. If a "pilot" or "navigator" kept his track updated frequently and applied good guesswork and was reasonable in his/her estimating, he/she would find themselves at the destination intended and the voyage, trek or flight would end safely.
Finding the New World
Christopher Columbus found the New World in 1492 using very similar Dead Reckoning techniques that I myself learned as a very young man in the early 1970's (very young indeed). The Ancient Polynesians sailed to the far reaches of the Pacific, some say all the way to Mexico and even Alaska by using these techniques. Using position updating and good estimates of progress is a system that many cultures in all parts of the World have developed independently to find their way to new and exciting destinations.
Business Plan
How do you find your way in business?
All businesses should have a plan... many actually start with a real honest to goodness published business plan. I am sure someone along the way has mentioned using a business plan to you if and when you first contemplated starting and running your own small business. How many of you actually maintain that plan as it was created and intended? If you do not have one and we all know who you are... Get started making a business plan, it is never too late!
Suggestion: Look around, it is possible the actual plan from when you started the business is hidden, tucked away in a drawer or file somewhere - never to be seen again...
Dig it UP
Is Yours Dusty?
Dig out your business plan, if you have one, and dust it off... Take a look at what you thought you wanted from your business, how you imagined it would progress and what observations lead you to the conclusions you put down on paper. Now, it's time to take a "fix" (Nautical term meaning mark your position from known data).
Get a Fix
Smart business owners get a fix on their position regularly along the way during the journey that is a businesses life. All businesses start from a known position and it is possible you have been traveling through uncharted waters ever since.
Did you ever take a "fix" and update your business plan?
With a "fix" you can make adjustments to the plan, alter the course of travel and ultimately find your way to the destination that you now remember having in mind when you first put the plan to paper. Dead Reckoning your business along a path to prosperity is a sound and age old way to make sure that the plan does not go off course. Without regular position checks and corroborating information, no business owner will know if he/she is progressing safely or falling off course.
Conditions Change
In any journey, especially those that last as long as it takes to build a profitable business, conditions change. On a voyage it could be the weather, or the current or a torn sail. In business it could be interest rates or the economy or in the case of a lot of my readers... some other entity - say - like eBay changing their business plan and effecting your safe journey to prosperity. Strong navigators, captains and business owners all have the ability to adjust to new and more difficult situations within the span of a single voyage. These successful people know that nothing ever remains the same and they are prepared to adapt, endure and to overcome.
What separates the winners from the losers is how a person reacts to each new twist of fate.
Checking your Dead Reckoning position along the way in your business plan also allows you to have a more complete picture and get a handle on the "Center of Effort" concept I wrote about before. Keeping all parts of the plan balanced and working together encourages efficiency and increases the chances of prosperity. Without a regular update on all aspects of your business, how can you adjust the varying factors that allow for a center of effort condition to exist? Everything you do in business should work towards one common goal - success!
Dead Reckoning Your Way...
... through business, life, and through each of our journeys on this earth is the most reliable way to reach any destination safely. Finding out and marking where it is that you are now, ultimately allows you to get to where you want to be in the future.
The only real difference is time, effort and vigilence.
