I want to thank the over 150 people that have signed up for classes in the past 45 days. Making videos is a passion of mine and an easy learning experience for video fanatics. I am also big into graphic design, web building and much more – so you will see new online programs added all the time. If you have an idea or a topic you would like to learn about, please contact me at: dogswithstyle@yahoo.com or you can "contact me" via phone. I answer calls M-F 9:00AM - 4:00PM CST.

I am an eBay Powerseller and have been selling for 5 years on eBay. There is a long learning curve for those of us that don't have any help from anyone, so I struggled and won and lost and won again. This website is devoted to people who want to learn how to "Survive EBay".

If you do not wish to continue this Monthly Newsletter, please unsubscribe or email me and I will make sure you are off the list.

In the past 45 days we have added:

Making Videos for your online eBay Listings – FREE – so go ahead, log in and sign up for it. Includes free software.

Creating Custom Graphics for your EBay Store – with FREE Easy to Use Graphic Design Software, 7- Step by step graphic project, lots of free graphics. You can use this information for building graphics for a new web site as well.

Creating The Perfect EBay Classified AD – This is geared for those people who sell digitally downloaded items on eBay. Since these downloads are now banned, these lessons will give you the inside dope on how to stay within eBay rules and still sell those digital products.

If you have a topic you would like to learn about, please email me with your suggestion.

In the 1950’s, when I was a 7 year old kid, I considered myself very lucky if I found a penny lying on the sidewalk. What a find. It didn’t have much value, but hey, I was sure it was a “lucky penny”.

In those days 5 cents bought a hot dog or a coke or a bag of popcorn. My mother would sometimes give me 10 cents to eat my school lunch at a corner diner called Konrads. I wrestled with my choices. I could only buy 2 things with my 10 cents. If I got a hot dog, I would need a coke because the hot dog would make me thirsty. So, usually I bought a hot dog and a coke. But, sometimes I would forgo the hot dog and get popcorn and a coke. If I had found five pennies – I could have all three!

Today, if you see a penny on the sidewalk, it will still be there the next day. People will pass, glance and move on. Yesterday, I saw a young man about 7 years old leap at the penny, show it to his mom, and say, “A Lucky Penny, Mom!” I still believe there is an excitement about “found money”. .I am not alone – so do millions of eBayers.

This is, in part, one of my many theories of the eBay buyers psyche. I was first drawn to eBay to figure out the value of my dad’s sheet music collection. Then I looked up some old toys I had had as a child – Remember the Japanese Puzzle Boxes with 12 moves? My older brother was given a 12 move box and because I was younger I got one with only 4 moves. He wouldn’t even let me touch the box and hid it where I couldn’t find it. So, one night in a “nostalgic reminiscence” I went to eBay, searched, found and bought myself the 12 move box. You would have thought I had summoned up the past and was determined to relive it. It was my “lucky penny”. I felt like a kid again.

The point I am making is this. If you sell on eBay, you should consider one something that is old, collectible and cheap. I know. It’s like the penny on the street. Your goal is to get people into your store. Variety is more than the spice of life, it is the way to appeal to a wide diversity of people and get more visitors to your store.

Mark you calendar: MAY 17, 2008

On this date, new eBay Feedback rules will go into effect.

1. Buyers can leave positive, neutral and negative feedback for a seller

2. Sellers can only leave positive.

3. If a buyer or seller is suspended, then all neutral and negatives are removed.

4. Buyers have 60 (used to be 90) days to leave feedback

5. Members will get credit for weekly repeat feedback.

Here’s the new add ons:

1. Buyers must wait 7 (it was 3) days to leave feedback

Let me begin by saying, eBay is using a bulldozer to kill a fly in your kitchen. Also, keep in mind that this company is listed on the NYSE, so that all decisions are monetary decisions. They need new buyers (to spend money). So, don’t think for a moment these decisions were made for the sake of transparency. Transparency means I would have been invited into the decision making process. Were you? I wasn’t.

With that having been said, I find myself as a seller discouraged for several reasons:

• Since February 20 th when the new price structure went into effect, visitors to my store have dropped 10 fold.
• I lost my favorite listing category, because that has been reserved entirely for “Classified Ads”. Take a look. It's a jungle out there.
• My new listing category is weak at best.
• The new search engine with “Best Match” has moved all of my items down at least 1 or 2 pages – people who offer FREE SHIPPING get priority (and, of course, eBay gets final value fees on the shipping costs you add onto the price of your item) – so please customize your listing page for: “ending now” sorting.

First quarter eBay statistics as offered by the Nielsen Online Report say that visitors are down 11%. Page Views fell over 11% from about 42 Billion to 37 Billion over the same period last year.

Unique audience (visitors) fell over 12 million users, 186 Million to around 170 Million - a drop of almost 7%.

I am suggesting that the writing is on the wall that says – eBay should no longer be the one and only way for you to sell on the internet. You should now seriously consider other venues. Stay on eBay, but when sales drop, have an alternative. Right now you may have 100% of your income dependent on eBay. It should be more like 50%. This could be a long transitional process, so give yourself a couple of years to make your moves. You have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

There are several options that I see for eBayers.

• The foremost in my mind is to go “Beyond EBay”. Consider another selling venue – auctionbiz, Amazon.com to name a couple. I will be putting together online lessons to help you overcome the challenges of these venues.
• Starting your own website with a shopping cart could be a viable alternative.
• Begin collecting names and emails so you can have a future newsletter to reach people when you make these moves.